Tyson Hardin had an impressive debut for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Tuesday night against the Quad Cities River Bandits at Modern Woodmen Park. The Rattlers starting pitcher faced the minimum over five scoreless, hitless innings with four strikeouts to earn the victory in the Rattlers 4-0 win over the Bandits.
Wisconsin (2-2) got the breakthrough in the top of the third inning. Jadher Areinamo doubled with two outs to get on base. Matt Wood followed with a double off the wall in right to drive in Areinamo for the 1-0 lead. Eduardo Garcia was next and fell behind Bandits starter Logan Martin 0-2. Garcia stayed in the at bat and worked the count full before singling to right on the ninth pitch of the at bat to drive in Wood for a 2-0 lead.
Quad Cities (3-1) managed one base runner against Hardin over five innings. Daniel Vazquez walked with one out in the first but was erased on a double play when Trevor Werner lined out to Blake Burke at first. Hardin was only in trouble twice in the game. He trailed Erick Torres with a 3-1 count on three straight balls in the third inning but bounced back to strikeout Torres looking. In the fifth inning, Sam Kulasingam lined a ball right past Hardin’s face for what looked like a single up the middle. However, Areinamo – in his first start at shortstop this season, ranged over to the first base side of second and fired a strike to Burke to the out.
Hardin made just 51 pitches with 34 going for strikes.
Hedbert Pérez doubled the Wisconsin lead in the top of the sixth. Daniel Guilarte had extended the inning with a two-out single against reliever Mauricio Velez. Then, Pérez ambushed a 1-1 pitch and crushed a long home run to right for a 4-0 advantage.
Aaron Rund took over for Hardin in the bottom of the sixth and walked the first two batters he faced before retiring the next three hitters. Rund got the first out of the seventh on a grounder to third. The no-hit bid ended on the next batter. Carter Frederick lined a clean single to center on a 3-2 pitch. Brian Fitzpatrick was called in from the Wisconsin bullpen to take over for Rund and closed out the inning with a flyout and a strikeout.
Then, Fitzpatrick closed out the game by setting down the Bandits in order in the eighth and ninth innings. He retired all eight batters he faced and struck out four.
The Wisconsin offense had fifteen base runners in the game, but only three of those runners reached with less than two outs. Wisconsin’s last seven runs – the last three on Sunday and all four on Tuesday – have been scored after there were two out with none on base in an inning.
Tuesday was the home opener for Quad Cities.
The Rattlers have won two straight games and will go for a third straight win in game two of the series on Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park. Ryan Birchard is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Rattlers. Felix Arronde is set to start for the Bandits. Both pitchers will be making their 2025 debuts. Game time is 6:30pm.
