The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers won the first two games of their three-game series with the Beloit Snappers at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium on exciting, late rallies. There was no late rally on Monday afternoon as the Snappers compiled twenty hits to beat Wisconsin 11-2 in the final meeting of the season between the two in-state rivals.
Anthony Churlin drove in the first four runs of the game to give the Snappers the lead. All four of his RBI came with two outs in an inning. In the first inning, Churlin put Beloit up 2-0 with a two-run single. In the third, Churlin hit a two-out, two-run home run off the scoreboard beyond the wall in left-center for a 4-0 lead.
The Snappers (31-54 overall, 4-13 second half) stole a run in the top of the fourth inning. Max Schuemann was at second with one out. Skyler Weber sent a deep fly to right-center for an out. Schuemann tagged at second and never stopped. He beat the throw to the plate to score the run and the Snappers were up 5-0.
Wisconsin (42-45, 11-7) loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning and plated two runs to cut into the deficit. Yeison Coca singled to left to get the first run home. Leugim Castillo knocked in the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. Little did anyone know that the hit by Coca would be the final hit of the game of the Timber Rattlers.
Beloit expanded their lead with three runs in the top of the sixth. Nick Ward drove in the first run of the inning with a double to right. Cobie Vance followed with a two-run single and the Snappers were up 8-2.
Ward, Vance, and John Jones, the top three hitters in the Beloit lineup, did the majority of the damage. The trio combined for fourteen of Beloit’s twenty hits in the contest. Ward and Jones each had five hits while Vance added four hits to the total.
Beloit scored three times in the ninth. Ward and Jones each had RBI singles. The other Beloit run in the inning scored on a wild pitch.
Chase Cohen closed out the Rattlers. He walked Gabriel García to start the sixth inning, but retired the final twelve batters of the game for his first save.
This was the second time in the last week that Beloit denied the Rattlers a three-game sweep. Wisconsin won the first two games of the series at Pohlman Field on June 29 and 30 only to lose to the Snappers on July 1. Wisconsin won the first two games of this series, but dropped the finale.
The last time Beloit had twenty hits in a game against the Timber Rattlers was on August 5, 2006.
The Timber Rattlers are off on Tuesday. They return to action on Wednesday night with the first game of a three-game series against the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field in Dayton, Ohio. Wisconsin has named Adam Hill (6-5, 3.78) as their starting pitcher. The Dragons have scheduled Eduardo Salazar (4-1, 4.75) as their starting pitcher. Game time is 6:00pm CDT.
