Je’Von Ward created a little history and the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers avoided making history in a 15-13 win over the Beloit Snappers at ABC Supply Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Ward hit for the cycle for Wisconsin and the Rattlers bullpen held on after leading 15-5 going into the bottom of the ninth inning.
Ward tripled to start the game. Hayden Cantrelle’s deep fly to left scored Ward and the Rattlers (39-44) were up 1-0.
Connor Scott doubled to start the bottom of the first inning for Beloit and stole third base with one out. Kameron Misner singled to right to drive in Scott to tie the game.
Wisconsin went back in front in the top of the second inning. Yeison Coca drew a walk with one out. Kekai Rios followed with a single down the line in right and turned first base too far. Rios got in a rundown and stayed in it long enough for Coca to score the go-ahead run.
Antonio Piñero drew a walk to keep the inning alive and Ward cashed in the opportunity with a double for a 3-1 lead.
The Snappers (39-45) had a chance to tie the score in the bottom of the third. Wisconsin starting pitcher Freisis Adames gave up a single to Victor Victor Mesa and a walk to Misner with one out. Will Banfield double to the corner in left. Mesa scored and Misner raced around third to head for the plate with the tying run. Ward picked the ball in the corner and threw to Piñero, the cutoff man. Piñero made a perfect throw to Rios at the plate and Misner was retired with Wisconsin still in front 3-2.
The Timber Rattlers started to pull away in the top of the fourth inning as they sent ten men to the plate and scored four runs. Piñero drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly. Ward singled home a run and that knocked Snappers starting pitcher Jake Walters out of the game. A pair of walks by reliever Raul Britto loaded the bases and Jesús Lujano drove in the final two runs of the inning with a single for a 7-2 lead.
Ward completed his cycle in the top of the fifth inning on his fourth at bat of the game. He cracked a 2-2 pitch from Brito over the wall in center for a two-run homer and Wisconsin was up 9-2.
Scott would homer off Wisconsin starting Freisis Adames in the fifth inning. Adames retired the next two batters and turned a 9-3 lead over to the bullpen after five solid innings.
The offense even added a run to the lead in the top of the sixth. Thomas Dillard, who walked five times in the game, had walked to start the inning. Lujano singled to left and the ball got past Misner to let Dillard score.
The bottom of the sixth inning started with Nash Walters taking over on the mound. He got the first out and thought he had a strike on a check swing Troy Johnston. Base umpire AJ Choc did not agree and ruled no swing. Johnston singled later in the at bat and Walters was ejected by Choc after a brief exchange of words while Walters waited for the ball to be returned to him. Cristían Sierra had to come into the game he gave up an RBI double to Kole Enright and an RBI single to Ynmanol Marinez to see Wisconsin’s lead shrink to 10-5.
The Wisconsin hitters went back to work in the top of the seventh inning. Piñero singled and Ward collected his fifth hit of the game with a bloop double to left. Hayden Cantrelle drove in a run with a single and Joe Gray Jr’s sacrifice fly scored Ward.
In the eighth, Ward stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. He hit a grounder to first and the throw to second got the force play, but thee throw to first was wild to let two runs score for a 14-5 lead.
Ward finished the fay 5-for-6 with five RBI, four runs scored, a stolen base, and an outfield assist. He is the first Rattler to have five hits in a game since Zach Clark did it on July 9, 2018 against Peoria.
Gray added one more run for Wisconsin with a lead-off home run in the ninth. That gave Gray two RBI on the day and eight RBI in the six-game series with the Snappers.
Beloit didn’t go quietly in the ninth inning against reliever John LaRossa. They loaded the bases with two walks and a single by Scott. The ninth inning single by Scott left him a triple shy of the cycle. Misner doubled in all three runners and scored on a wild pitch. A walk to Will Banfield was followed by a two-run home run by Troy Johnston and that ended the outing for LaRossa with Wisconsin’s lead down to 15-11.
Taylor Floyd took over from the Wisconsin bullpen and got the second out it was sandwiched between a hit batsman and a single. Ricky Aracena scored both runners with a double off the top of the wall in center and the Snappers were within two runs and Scott coming back to the plate as the tying run.
Floyd ended the game with a strikeout, Scott missed on his chance for a cycle, and Wisconsin got out of Beloit with the victory.
The cycle by Ward was the first by a Timber Rattler in team history. It was also the first by an Appleton professional baseball player since Ed Bahns hit for the cycle as a member of the Appleton Foxes in a game against the Cedar Rapids Giants at Goodland Field on May 10, 1979.
The Timber Rattlers are off on Monday. They will be back in action on Tuesday night when they begin a six-game series with the Great Lakes Loons at Neuroscience Group Field with a 7:05pm start time.
