(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) GRAND CHUTE, WI – Andrew Fischer keeps hitting home runs. The Milwaukee Brewers first round pick in the 2025 draft cranked his nineteenth homer of the season on Wednesday afternoon in game one of a doubleheader against the Great Lakes Loons. This one, a three-run shot to left, broke a scoreless tie and was the catalyst for a 5-0 victory over the first place team in the East Division.
Pitching dominated the game early. Wisconsin starting pitcher Josh Knoth, still working his way back to being able to go deeper into games, allowed three hits, walked two, and struck out five over 3-2/3 innings. Great Lakes starter Aidan Foeller retired the first eight Rattlers he faced and only allowed one hit with four strikeouts over three innings before he also left on a pitch count.
Garrett Hodges took over for Knoth with two on and two out in the top of the fourth inning to get the final out of the inning. Hodges stranded two runners in the fifth and two more in the sixth to keep the game scoreless.
Wisconsin (31-24) broke through in the bottom of the sixth. Josiah Ragsdale and Marco Dinges started the inning with singles against reliever Dilan Figueredo, who had entered the contest to start the sixth. The wind, which had been blowing in from center for much of the game had shifted and was blowing out strongly to left by the start of the sixth.
Fischer lifted the pitch from Figueredo to left and the ball carried out of the ballpark for a three-run home run.
Later in the inning, Luis Castillo, who had been robbed of a home run to right by the wind howling in from that direction in the fifth inning, cashed in Eric Bitonti with an RBI single to right. Juan Baez capped the inning with a double off the wall in left to drive in Daniel Dickinson.
Yerlin Rodriguez closed out the game, and Wisconsin’s fourth shutout of the season with a scoreless top of the seventh.
Great Lakes (33-24) stranded nine runners and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Game one of the doubleheader was only the second time the Loons have been shutout this season.
The Timber Rattlers single-season home run record is 22 – shared by Khris Davis, Victor Roache, and Clint Coulter. Only three other players in franchise history have hit 20 or more homers in a season: Juan Silvestre (21 in 1999), Brock Kjeldgaard (20 in 2009), and Isan Diaz (20 in 2016).
Game two of Wednesday’s doubleheader between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Great Lakes Loons at Neuroscience Group Field has been rained out. The game will be rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Thursday evening.
There will be two seven-inning games scheduled for Thursday night. The gates to the stadium will open at 4:30pm with game one starting at 5:10pm. There will be approximately thirty to forty minutes between games of the doubleheader.
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