(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) PEORIA, IL – Wande Torres set professional single-game highs for strikeouts and innings pitched to earn his sixth win of the season for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Friday night against the Peoria Chiefs at Dozer Park. The lefty struck out ten over seven innings and was backed up by a big offensive night from his hitters for a 9-2 victory.
Luis Castillo gave Wisconsin (44-30 overall, 10-2 second half) a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning with a two-run double that scored Eric Bitonti and Tayden Hall.
Peoria (37-41, 5-7) had a chance to score in the second inning. Ian Petrutz was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Torres struck out the next two batters. Luis Pino ripped a double to the corner in left and Petrutz tried to score from first. Left fielder Tayden Hall played the carom and hit cutoff man Daniel Guilarte with a good throw. Guilarte’s relay to the plate was perfect and in plenty of time for catcher Yannic Walther to put the tag on Petrutz to end the inning.
The Rattlers used the long ball to add to their lead in the top of the fifth. Walther started the inning with a single. Marco Dinges homered to left, his eleventh of the season, to knock Peoria starting pitcher Tanner Franklin out of the game.
Castillo was up against reliever Gerardo Salas with a runner on first with one out in the fifth. Castillo launched a two-run homer to right for a 6-0 lead. The homer, Castillo’s ninth of the season, was Wisconsin’s 100th of the year.
Dinges collected his third hit of the night, a bloop single to drive in a run, in the top of the sixth.
Wisconsin made it 9-0 in the top of the seventh with two Peoria errors assisting the Rattlers run scoring efforts. Juan Baez tripled to center to score Daniel Guilarte, who had reached on error. Tyler Rodriguez knocked in Baez with a grounder to second that was booted for an error, the third of the night by the Chiefs.
Torres was cruising through six innings but gave up a pair of singles to open the seventh. He got Anyelo Encarnaciόn to hit a grounder to Baez at third. Baez stepped on third for a force play and threw to first for a double play. However, the throw was high. Bitonti leapt for the ball but couldn’t come down with it. He did come down awkwardly on his left foot and he was on the ground near first unable to go after the ball in foul territory. Michael Dattalo, the runner at first scored on the play with Encarnaciόn ending up at third by the time the Rattler defenders could get to the ball.
Bitonti would leave the game under his own power.
The game restarted with Torres issuing his first walk of the night before getting the second out of the inning on an RBI grounder by Christian Martin. Torres rebounded to end the night in style with his tenth strikeout.
Two Rattler relievers covered the final two innings. José Nova struck out three as he worked around a two out double in the eighth. Garrett Hodges pitched the ninth allowing a solo homer to Encarnaciόn as he got the final three outs.
Game five of the series is Saturday night at Dozer Park. Jayden Dubanewicz (2-0, 3.60) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Peoria has Leonel Sequera (1-5, 8.17) as their starter. Game time is 6:05pm.
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