GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Cedar Rapids Kernels almost made it. The teams battled each other and an approaching thunderstorm on Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The storm won as the tarp was placed on the field after the final out of the top of the ninth inning with the score tied 3-3.
Friday’s game will resume at 6:00pm on Saturday at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium with the Rattlers coming to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. The parking lot opens at 4:00pm with the gates to the stadium opening at 5:00pm.
There will be a thirty-minute break between the end of suspended game and the start of the regularly scheduled game. The regularly scheduled game will start no earlier than 6:40pm and is set for nine innings.
Eduardo García started the bottom of the second inning on Friday night with a check-swing grounder that rolled into shallow right. García turned that into a hustle double. Then, Darrien Miller walked. A passed ball moved both runners up a base. Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Kyle Jones threw a wild pitch moments later to allow García to score the first run of the game.
Tyler Woessner, Wisconsin’s starting pitcher, retired the first nine batters he faced before running into trouble in the fourth inning. Three walks loaded the bases with one out. Woessner got a strikeout for the second out and was ahead of Andrew Cossetti with a 1-2 count. Cossetti put the ball in play and got a grounder off Woessner. The ball trickled behind the mound and Woessner could not pick the ball up cleanly as two runners scored to give the Kernels a 2-1 lead.
Wisconsin tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. García started the inning with a walk and Miller followed with a bunt single. Jose Acosta singled sharply to right to load the bases with one out. Terence Doston was next and he lined a single to left to score García with the tying run.
The Kernels took the lead in the top of the sixth inning against reliever Justin King. Emmanuel Rodriguez doubled and took third on a flyout to right. King got the second out with a popup, but through a wild pitch to all Rodriguez to score for a 3-2 lead.
Joe Gray Jr was hit by a pitch from Malik Barrington with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Gray stole second, scrambled for third after the throw from Cossetti bounced into center. Rodriguez fielded the ball and tried to get Gray at third. Instead, the ball made it into the Cedar Rapids dugout and Gray was able to trot home with the tying run.
The game remained tied through the top of the ninth. The grounds crew raced to put the tarp on the field just after Sam Gardner got a strikeout for the final out of the top of the ninth inning. The tarp was in place just before the heavy rain started to fall. Friday’s contest was suspended thirty minutes after the weather halted play.
In the regularly scheduled game, Stiven Cruz (4-5, 6.78) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers with Christian MacLeod (1-0, 3.22) named as the starter for the Kernels.
The Lake Winnebago Shantymen make their first official appearance at Neuroscience Group Field on Saturday night. Wisconsin players and coaches will wear the caps and jerseys of this new alternate identity in the regularly scheduled game. The Shantymen jerseys are available in an online auction at this link now through Sunday, July 30 at 7:00pm. The first 1,000 fans through the gates on Saturday will receive a Shantymen Fang bobblehead from Dairy Queen.
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