The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored five times in the top of the first inning and went on to defeat the South Bend Cubs 7-4 Sunday afternoon at Four Winds Field.  The win gave the Rattlers a split in the series and moved their record back to the .500 mark.

Wisconsin (18-18) had a hot start in the first inning.  The first three batters drew walks from Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Jensen.  Thomas Dillard drove in the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.  Je’Von Ward was next and he doubled to drive in the second run.  Gabriel García made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly.  Then, Carlos Rodríguez doubled in a run.  Kekai Rios singled to drive Rodríguez home and knock Jensen out of the game to give Wisconsin starting pitcher Zach Mort a 5-0 lead before he ever took the mound.

South Bend (17-18) got on the scoreboard when Josue Huma homered with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.

Hayden Cantrelle got that run back for the Timber Rattlers in the top of the fourth inning with a two-out RBI single to drive in Jesús Lujano.

Yonathan Perlaza hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth for the Cubs and Wisconsin’s lead was back down to four runs.

The Rattlers added to their lead on a gift from Mother Nature in the top of the seventh inning.  Ward singled with one out.  Then,  García sent a high fly ball to left that was lost in the Sun.  Ward raced home with the run as García cruised into second with a double.

The Cubs got another home run in the bottom of the seventh as Matt Burch cracked a two-run homer off Mort.  The Rattler right-hander struck out the next batter and that ended his day.  Mort scattered nine hits with no walks and five strikeouts over 6-1/3 innings to put himself in line for his first win of the season.

Relievers Arman Sabouri got the final two outs of the seventh and Evan Reifert pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Taylor Floyd waled the first two batters he faced.  Then, he got a strikeout and a 4-6-3 double play to close out the game for his third save of the season.

The Timber Rattlers are off on Monday.  They will return to action on Tuesday against the Quad Cities River Bandits, the Western Division leaders, at Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, Iowa.  Carlos Luna (0-0, 0.00) has been announced as the starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers.  Game time is 6:30pm.  Catch all of the action on AM 1280 WNAM starting with the pregame show at 6:10pm.  The game will be available on internet audio and through MiLB.tv, too.