The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Cedar Rapids Kernels scored twelve runs over the first two innings. It would be the Rattlers who would score run number thirteen and hold on for a 7-6 victory at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium on Saturday night. Jackson Chourio homered and drove in three runs while Tristan Peters had three hits, including the RBI single to knock in the go-ahead run to lead the Wisconsin offense.
Yunior Severino put the Kernels (58-37 overall, 15-14 second half) up 2-0 in the top of the first inning when he hit an 0-2 pitch for a two-out, two-run home run.
The Timber Rattlers (50-44, 14-15) responded in the bottom of the first. Peters doubled to start the inning. Then, Chourio crushed a two-run home run to center to tie the game. The homer was the first as a Timber Rattler for the 18-year-old top prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers system. Ashton McGee started a two-out rally with a single. Darrien Miller reached on an error to keep the inning alive. Zavier Warren made the Kernels pay when he cracked a three-run homer to the Cedar Rapids bullpen and the Rattlers were up 5-2 after one inning.
Cedar Rapids rallied back in the top of the second inning with four runs off Wisconsin starter Antoine Kelly. A walk and a single put runners on the corners. A wild pitch allowed a run to score before Kelly struck out the next two batters. Alerick Soularie knocked in the second run of the inning with a single. Aaron Sabato put the Kernels up 6-5 with a two-run home run to left.
Wisconsin came right back to tie the game in the bottom of the second. Jose Acosta drew a walk and Peters followed with a double to put runners at second and third. Chourio knocked in Acosta with a grounder to short for a 6-6 game.
Acosta figured into the go-ahead run, too. He doubled with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Peters blooped a single into right and Acosta raced home with the run to give the Rattlers a 7-6 lead.
Peters went 3-for-4 in the game. He has six straight games with two or more hits and is 13-for-24 during that streak.
Chourio is 8-for-20 with five RBI and has a five-game hitting streak since joining the Timber Rattlers at the start of this series. He is on a nine-game hitting streak, including his final four games with the Carolina Mudcats.
Kelly walked Sabato and Severino, the first two batters he faced in the top of the fifth inning. That was the end of the line for him. Kelly allowed six runs on six hits with four walks, a hit batsman, and six strikeouts with 93 pitches.
Joey Matulovich entered the game from the Wisconsin bullpen and got a popup for the first out. Pat Winkel was next, and he hit a line drive that looked like it would go down the line in right. McGee made a leaping grab of the liner and raced to first to mage a diving tag on Severino for an unassisted double play to end the inning.
Matulovich pitched three scoreless innings and turned the one-run lead over to James Meeker to start the eighth.
Meeker retired the Kernels in order in the eighth and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, including strikeouts of the final to batters, to close out the game for his sixth save of the season.
The Kernels didn’t have a hit after the second inning. The win was the second in a row for the Timber Rattlers.
The final game of the series and of the homestand is Sunday afternoon. Russell Smith (2-4, 4.62) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattler. The Kernels have named Orlando Rodriguez (3-1, 3.62) as their starter for Sunday. Game time is 1:10pm.
