(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had several chances to stay unbeaten in the second half of the season on Saturday night against the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Neuroscience Group Field. However, the Kernels staged a stunning late rally and denied the Rattlers a storybook comeback to beat the Rattlers 5-4 and end the host’s six-game winning streak.
The top three hitters in the Rattlers order exploded to give Wisconsin (40-29 overall, 6-1 second half) a 3-0 lead in the third inning. Josiah Ragsdale, who moved his on-base streak to 31 games with a lead-off walk in the first inning, drew another walk to lead off the bottom of the third. Marco Dinges followed with a 111-mph line drive off the wall in left-center to score Ragsdale with the first run of the game. Braylon Payne followed with a towering, two-run home run to right for a 3-0 lead.
Payne’s fifteenth home run of the season was the team’s seventeenth homer in ten games against the Kernels this season.
Cedar Rapids (32-39, 1-6) cut the Timber Rattlers lead to one run with two runs in the top of the fourth inning. Brandon Winokur walked to start the frame. He was the Kernels first base runner after Wisconsin starting pitcher Jayden Dubanewicz retired the first nine batters he faced. Dameury Pena followed with a bloop down the line in right. The ball landed just out of the reach of a diving Ragsdale and went for an RBI triple. Eduardo Tait knocked in Pena with a ground out to first.
The Timber Rattlers padded their lead in the fifth inning. Dinges walked and went from first to third on a single by Eric Bitonti. Daniel Dickinson drove in Dinges with a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.
Dubanewicz went back out for the top of the sixth and retired the only batter he faced before the call went to the Wisconsin bullpen. Dubanewicz allowed two runs on one hit with three walks and five strikeouts over 5-1/3 innings as he left with a chance for his third win in three starts as a Rattler.
José Nova, the first Rattler reliever, retired all five batters he faced, including three via the strikeout, to maintain the 4-2 lead.
However, the Rattlers bats could not add on to that two-run advantage despite drawing walks in the sixth and seventh innings. Both walks were cut down on stolen base attempts.
Chandler Welch entered the game in the top of the eighth for Nova and gave up a lead-off single to Graham Brown. Welch got the first out on a weak grounder back to the mound with Brown running on the pitch. Winokur followed with an infield single and stole second to get into scoring position with the tying run. Pena’s grounder to the hole at short was a 6-3 putout for the second out thanks to a nice play by Daniel Guilarte as Brown scored by Winokur stayed at second.
The Rattlers lead was down to one as Tait, the Kernels leader in home runs, stepped to the plate. Tait hit a 1-1 pitch from Welch out to right for a home run and a 5-4 lead. Tait, the #2 prospect in the Minnesota Twins minor league system, has hit fifteen homers this season. He has three of those homers against the Rattlers.
Wisconsin had opportunities in both the eighth and ninth innings. Kernels reliever Sam Rochard walked the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the eighth before getting a strikeout to end the threat.
Ragsdale was the lead-off batter in the ninth and hit a high flyball to left the ball bounced back into the field of play with Ragsdale stopping at second for a double. Replays showed the ball hitting high off a support post for the left field lofts for what should have been a game-tying home run. However, the call stood after a brief, calm discussion between manager Nick Stanley and the plate umpire.
Rochard able to escape the jam. He struck out Dinges for the first out. Payne hit a rocket at 108-mph off the bat for right field, but Pena fielded the ball cleanly for the out at first with Ragsdale taking third base. That left Bitonti, who just missed a hanging curve and popped out to right to end the game and Wisconsin’s six game winning streak.
The Timber Rattlers went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had three runners thrown out trying to steal second base. The offense drew twelve walks but struck out eleven times in the game.
The series wraps up on Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field. Braylon Owens (3-0, 3.84) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Michael Ross (5-3, 7.54) is set to start for the Kernels. Game time is 1:10pm.
Brice Turang was a member of our first Wisconsin Udder Tuggers team in 2019. It is appropriate that Turang closes out this Udder Tuggers Weekend as a bobblehead giveaway presented by Best Western & Sport-O-Motive. Make sure your bobblehead collection adds this one by being one of the first 1,000 fans to attend the series finale.
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