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Gray and Acosta Homer in Wisconsin Win over Peoria

Joe Gray Jr. had four hits, including his seventh home run of the season, and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Peoria Chiefs 7-4 Friday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.  The Timber Rattlers offense broke out of a brief slide with twelve hits to pick up their second win of the series with Peoria.

 

Mike Antico drew a walk, took second on a wild pitch, and stole third to start the game for the Chiefs (20-29).  Tyler Reichenborn drove in Antico with a sacrifice fly and for a 1-0 lead.

Tyler Black started the Wisconsin half of the first inning with a walk, and he did not need a sacrifice fly to score.  Gray put a 1-1 pitch into orbit over the batters’ eye in center for a 432’ homer and the Rattlers (30-19) were up 2-1.

The two newest Timber Rattlers combined to add to the Wisconsin lead in the second inning.  Arbert Cipion singled with two outs.  Then, Jose Acosta cranked a home run to right-center for a 4-1 lead.

Wisconsin, which had been shut out the previous two nights by the Chiefs, poured on the offense in the third inning with three more runs.  Zavier Warren singled, took second on a wild pitch, went to third on an error, and scored on another wild pitch for the first run of the inning.  Darrien Miller and Ashton McGee each drove in run later in the inning.  Miller with an RBI single and McGee with an RBI double.

The Chiefs got a run in the fourth inning off Wisconsin starting pitcher Antoine Kelly.  Francisco Hernandez doubled and stole second.  He scored on a grounder to short from Luís Rodríguez. 

Kelly worked through four innings, allowed two runs on four hits with a hit batsman and three walks, and struck out four.

Zach Mort took over for Kelly to start the fifth and worked a 1-2-3 inning but ran into trouble in the sixth.  Hernandez hit a lead-off home run.  Mort got the next two outs before Mack Chambers singled.  That brought Antico to the plate, and he lined a double to right to score Chambers to cut the Timber Rattlers lead to three runs.

Cam Robinson was the next pitcher out of the Wisconsin bullpen, and he entered in the top of the eighth with a 16-1/3 inning scoreless streak.  Robinson gave up a lead-off double and a one-out walk with a wild pitch to put runners on the corners with the tying run at the plate.  The Rattlers closer escaped the jam with a strikeout and a flyout to maintain the lead.  In the ninth, Robinson pitched a 1-2-3 frame to earn his eleventh save and to move his scoreless innings streak to 18-1/3 innings.

In the first half Western Division playoff race, the Timber Rattlers remained one game behind division leading Cedar Rapids.  The Kernels won 8-5 at Lansing on Friday night.  Third place South Bend fell three games off the pace set by the Kernels with a loss at Dayton.

 

Game five of the series is Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field.  Max Lazar (1-0, 1.59) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin.  Logan Gragg (2-4, 4.95) is set to start for Peoria.  Game time is 6:40pm.

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