GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattler and Peoria Chiefs played for almost four hours on Wednesday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. There were 24 hits, 16 walks, seven errors, and a lot of opportunities for both teams. In the end, the Chiefs built a big enough lead and held on for a 12-11 victory over the Rattlers in game two of the six-game series.
Garrett Mitchell put the Timber Rattlers (13-13) up 3-0 as the third batter in the bottom of the first inning. David Hamilton started the inning with a single to move his hitting streak to eight games. Korry Howell drew a walk. Then, Mitchell, the #1 pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2020 draft, drove a 1-0 pitch over the wall in center for his first professional home run.
Peoria (10-16) took advantage of a walk and a hit batsman by Wisconsin starting pitcher Zach Mort in the top of the second. Those two runners scored on a two-out triple by Malcom Nunez and the Wisconsin lead was down to 3-2.
The Chiefs took advantage of an error to score the tying run in the top of the third. Francisco Hernandez singled and stole second with one out. Chandler Redmond was next and he sent a slow chopper in front of the plate. Catcher Nick Kahle bobbled the pickup and fired late to first. Chandler was safe and Hernandez noticed that no one was covering home plate. Hernandez raced home with the tying run.
The Rattlers wasted an opportunity in the bottom of the third inning as YaSenka walked Hamilton, Howell, and Mitchell to load the bases with no outs. YaSenka struck out the next two batters and reliever Cole Aker got the final out on a flyout.
The game turned against the Rattlers in the top of the fourth inning as the Chiefs had five hits and the Rattlers committed two errors to lead to four runs and a 7-3 Peoria lead.
Nunez was up with runners at first and second with no outs and sent a grounder up the first base line into right. A run scored on the hit and a wild throw to second base by Carlos Rodríguez eluded three different Wisconsin defenders and wound up along the wall in foul territory behind third base. By the time the Wisconsin defense corralled the ball, Nunez was steaming for the plate and three runs had scored on the play.
Another defensive misplay led to another Peoria run later in the inning. There was a runner at first with one out when Hernandez sent a high fly to center that looked like an easy out. However, Howell lost the ball in the twilight and the ball landed safely well behind him to allow the final run of the inning score.
Wisconsin rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the inning by scoring four runs on just one hit.
Three walks by Cole Aker loaded the bases. Aker hit Howell with a pitch to force in a run. Then, Thomas Dillard hit a flyball high off the wall in left for a three-run double to even the score 7-7.
The Chiefs went back in front on two more defensive miscues by the Rattlers in the top of the fifth. Tyler Reichenborn hit a single to left with runners at first and second and one out and a bobble by Chad McClanahan allowed the runner from second to score.
The next batter sent a tailor-made double play ball that should have ended the inning. Instead a wild throw to first allowed the inning to continue and Brendan Donovan doubled in the second run for a 9-7 lead.
Cristían Sierra, Wisconsin’s third pitcher of the night, entered the game with a runner at first and no outs in the top of the sixth inning. That runner went to second on a wild pitch, stole third, and scored on another wild pitch. Later in the inning, Matt Chamberlain hit a two-run home run and Peoria was up 12-7.
Wisconsin kept fighting though.
Rodríguez singled in a run in the sixth inning. Hamilton beat out a potential inning-ending double play in the seventh inning to allow a run to score from third. Mitchell drove in another run in the seventh with an RBI single. Dillard scored from third on a passed ball in the eighth and the Rattlers were within a run and had the tying run at second with no outs. However, Wisconsin couldn’t get the key hit to bring the tying run home in the eighth.
In the ninth, Hamilton singled with one out and stole second for his sixth steal of the game. Peoria reliever Leonardo Taveras, who stranded the tying run at second in the eighth, retired the next two batters to preserve the win for Peoria.
To re-emphasize the point, David Hamilton stole six bases in the game. The last Timber Rattlers player to steal four bases in a game was Omar Garcia, who did that on May 3, 2014 against Clinton. The old Midwest League record for stolen bases in a game was six and it was set by Charles Popovich of the Mount Vernon Kings on May 16, 1951.
Wisconsin was 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position in the game.
Game three of the series is Thursday night. Victor Castañeda (1-1, 4.44) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Peoria plans to send Nick Trogrlic-Iverson (1-1, 4;09) to the mound. Game time is 7:05pm.
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