Wild Sixth Inning Crushes Rattlers Hopes for a Win

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Lake County Captains had no hits, but scored five runs on six walks, an error, and a wild pitch in the sixth inning against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Thursday night. The wild inning allowed the Captains to erase a 2-1 deficit and go on to a 6-3 win over the Rattlers at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

Lake County (19-13) scored a run in the first inning against Wisconsin starting pitcher Logan Gillaspie. Mitch Reeves doubled in a run for the 1-0 lead.

Gillaspie worked through five innings without allowing another run and kept the Rattlers within a run. He struck out five in his first start of the season.

Wisconsin (13-18) rallied for two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead. Antonio Piñero drove in the tying run with a triple. Brice Turang put the Rattlers in front with a slow ground out up the first baseline and to drive in Piñero.

Yohandry Pérez took over for Gillaspie to start the top of the sixth. Quentin Holmes was at second with two outs after a walk and a stolen base when Pérez got Hosea Nelson to send a grounder to first. The toss to Pérez was in time, but he dropped the throw and that allowed the speedy Holmes to score the tying run. That was just the start of things going bad for the Rattlers.

Pérez walked the next batter and was replaced by Justin Bullock with the Rattlers still tied and still needing one out to get out of the inning.

Bullock walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. The next two batters were also walked by Bullock to force in two runs. Bullock threw ball one to Reeves and walked to the grass behind the mound in some discomfort. He left the game after trainer Jeff Paxson and manager Matt Erickson went out to check on him.

Peter Strzelecki took over the count on Reeves and wound up walking him on to force in another run. A wild pitch would let in one more run and the Captains had taken a 6-2 lead on five straight walks and a wild pitch after there had been two outs in the inning.

Wisconsin loaded the bases in the eighth inning and Piñero drove in a run with a two-out single that deflected off base umpire Steven Rios, Jr. The bases would stay loaded as Luis Araujo, the fifth Lake County pitcher of the night, got the final out of the inning with a strikeout. 

Araujo closed out the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth that included two more strikeouts.

Timber Rattlers hitters struck out a total of sixteen times in the game.

Game two of the series is set for Friday night. Aaron Ashby (1-1, 4.37) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Juan Mota (1-4, 5.97) is set to start for Lake County. Game time is 6:35pm.

The Timber Rattlers are celebrating Hispanic Heritage in minor league baseball with help from HOLA Wisconsin and Casa Hispana for their first Los Cascabeles Night of the 2019 season. A group of students from Appleton Bilingual School will perform prior to the game. The first 1,000 fans to attend this game will receive a Sugar Skull bobblehead courtesy of DiGiorno Pizza. 

Players from both teams will wear specially-designed hats and jerseys for this game to as part of Minor League Baseball's Copa de la Diversión. It is the Cascabeles de Wisconsin against the Picantes de Lake County on Friday night.

Fans of legal drinking age may have Arty's Old Fashioned Drinks for $3 and there is Kids Run the Bases for children 14 & under after the game made possible by Menasha Corporation.
If you can't make it out to the game, you can still catch all the action. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:15pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.