The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers put on a show in front of their biggest home crowd of the season in their 10-4 win over the Great Lakes Loons on Friday night at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The Timber Rattlers hit three home runs, collected fourteen hits, and scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take the lead for good as 4,254 fans watched the offensive fireworks.
Joe Gray Jr. was all over the field in the first inning for the Timber Rattlers. He made a diving catch in center in the top of the first inning to rob lead-off batter Eddys Leonard of a hit. In the bottom of the first, Gray crushed a solo homer to left with two outs and gave Wisconsin a 1-0 lead. The homer was Gray’s fifth home run since joining Wisconsin.
Great Lakes (46-42) went in front in the top of the second. Jonny DeLuca hit a two-run home run for a 2-1 lead. The home run was the 131st of the season for the Loons.
They added to their lead in the to of the third inning on a solo homer by Eddys Leonard.
Wisconsin (42-45) pulled back to within a run in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI double by Kekai Rios, but the Loons got that run back in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Carson Taylor.
The Timber Rattlers offense came alive in the bottom of the fifth. Zavier Warren started the inning with a double. Chad McClanahan was next and he singled to right. Warren scored on the hit and McClanahan took second on the throw home. That brought LG Castillo to the plate as the go-ahead run.
Castillo hammered an 0-2 pitch to the Great Lakes bullpen for his fifth home run of the season and Wisconsin was up 5-4.
Later in the inning Joey Wiemer cracked a two-run homer out of the ballpark and the Rattlers had a 7-4 lead. Wiemer has homered in three straight games.
Great Lakes threatened in the top of the sixth inning as they loaded the bases with no outs against reliever Nash Walters. The right-hander escaped the inning with no damage as he struck out the next two batters before getting a ground out to end the inning.
Wisconsin put the game away in the bottom of the sixth inning. Gray, who had four hits in the game, singled and stole second. Warren was hit by a pitch and Castillo, who had three hits, singled to score Gray and get Warren around to third base for an 8-4 lead.
Later in the inning, Castillo took off early from first base and was picked off but stayed in a rundown and eluded the infielders long enough for Warren to break for the plate and score on a steal of home.
Castillo doubled in the eighth inning and would score from third on a grounder off the bat of Rios for the final run of the game.
Wisconsin’s bullpen pitched four scoreless innings on Friday night. Walters worked a scoreless sixth. Evan Reifert pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth with three strikeouts. Taylor Floyd pitched a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts. Timber Rattlers relievers have covered fifteen innings in the series with Great Lakes. They have allowed one run and struck out 25 in those fifteen innings.
The four-hit game for Gray was his first as a professional.
Game five of the series is Saturday night. Justin Jarvis (1-5, 5.70) is set to be the starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Great Lakes has named Hyun-Il Choi (0-0, 3.00) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Game time is 6:35pm.
