Jackson Chourio kept Friday’s game against the Peoria Chiefs at Dozer Park tied early with his defense. Later in the game, Chourio untied the game with his bat as the Timber Rattlers went on to a 6-1 victory. The win was Wisconsin’s fourth win in their last five games.
For the second night in a row, Wisconsin leadoff hitter Darrien Miller hit a home run to start the game. Miller hit the third pitch of Thursday’s game for a home run. On Friday night, Miller hit the fourth pitch of the game out of the stadium for his twelfth home run of the season.
Peoria (52-72 second half, 24-34 second half) came back to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning. The Chiefs had one out with Mack Chambers at third and Francisco Hernandez at second. Tommy Jew singled to center to score Chambers. Hernandez also tried to score but was thrown out at the plate on a one-hop throw from Chourio.
The game turned on two plays. There was one in the bottom of the fifth with the other occurring in the top of the sixth.
Jew started the Peoria fifth with a single and stole second. Noah Mendlinger followed with single to right, but Jew held at third as the throw came through to the plate. Mendlinger noticed that the throw missed the cutoff man and wound up at second on the play. That set up the Chiefs with runners at second and third with no outs.
Todd Lott was next. He hit a fly ball to medium right. Jew tagged from third and tried to score. Joe Gray Jr made the catch and fired a strike to the plate to get Jew for the double play. Wisconsin starting pitcher Alexander Cornielle retired the next batter on a strikeout to keep the game tied.
In the top of the sixth, Reidy Mercado beat out an infield single and stole second before Miller drew a walk to bring Chourio to the plate for the other key play.
The Brewers #1 prospect crushed a 2-2 pitch from Peoria starting pitcher Wilfredo Pereira to left-center and the Rattlers had a 4-1 lead. Chourio has hit four homers in five games and has twenty homer runs between the Carolina Mudcats and Wisconsin.
The Timber Rattlers (64-59, 28-30) added two more runs in the inning. Ethan Murray drew a walk with the bases loaded and Antonio Piñero knocked in the final run with a ground out for a 6-1 advantage.
Cornielle finished his night with a 1-2-3 sixth inning. He allowed one run on five hits with six strikeouts over six innings for a quality start to put himself in line for his first Midwest League victory.
Jeison Peña pitched around a pair of two-out walks in the seventh. He got two outs but needed help in the eighth as the Chiefs loaded the bases on a single and two walks
Karlos Morales took over for Peña and got pinch-hitter Aaron McKeithan to weakly tap back to the mound. Morales charged and flipped to Miller covering at the plate for the inning-ending force out. Morales finished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first Midwest League save.
The news wasn’t all good for the Timber Rattlers. The South Bend Cubs defeated the Lansing Lugnuts in South Bend on Friday night to officially eliminate Wisconsin from playoff contention in the 2022 season.
