The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are coming home after wrapping up their series with the Quad Cities River Bandits at Modern Woodmen Park on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the road finale was all Quad Cities as the home team scored five runs in the first inning and the visitors struggled offensively in the game.
The River Bandits (56-39 overall, 17-12 second half) scored five runs on five hits, a walk, and two errors by the Rattlers in the bottom of the first.
The inning started with Sam Kulasingam singling on the first pitch from Wisconsin starting pitcher Sam Garcia. Kulasingam had a painful steal of second that helped set up the rest of the inning. Garcia threw over to first base as Kulasingam moved early. Blake Burke took the throw from Garcia and fired to second. However, the ball hit Kulasingam in the back.
Erick Torres followed with an RBI double for a 1-0 lead.
Callan Moss added an RBI single through a drawn-in infield after a sacrifice bunt moved Torres to third base.
A bunt single by Derlin Figueroa and an RBI double by Carter Frederick scored another run and had runners on second and third with one out.
Trevor Werner added a fourth run on a sacrifice fly.
Garcia issued a walk to the next batter but looked to be out of the inning after striking out Canyon Brown, the ninth hitter of the frame. However, the ball got away from catcher Blayberg Diaz. Then, Diaz’s throw to first pulled Burke off the bag to allow Brown to reach. To compound the error, no one was covering the plate and Frederick scored all the way from second for a 5-0 lead.
Wisconsin (43-52, 9-21) could do nothing against Mason Miller, the Bandits starting pitcher. He faced the minimum through four scoreless, hitless innings. The only batter to reach against Mason was Steward Berroa, who was hit by a pitch to open the fourth before being erased on a double play.
Meanwhile, the River Bandits were adding to their lead with two runs in the third against Patricio Aquino on an RBI double by Bryan Gonzalez and a run-scoring passed ball. Werner hit a solo home run in the fifth inning against Jesús Broca for an 8-0 lead.
Wisconsin scored their run in the top of the sixth inning on an RBI single by Eduardo Garcia.
The Rattlers were held to three singles in the game. Blake Burke, Daniel Guilarte, and Garcia had the hits for the Rattlers.
The main highlight for Wisconsin was left fielder Luiyin Alastre robbing a home run from Frederick in the fifth inning. Frederick had doubled and tripled in his first two at bats but was denied the homer when Alastre timed his leap at the wall perfectly to make the catch.
The Timber Rattlers ended the series 2-4 at Quad Cities and their nine-game road trip through Iowa at 3-6.
Next up for the Timber Rattlers is the first game of a series with the Lake County Captains on Tuesday night at Neuroscience Group Field. Robert Gasser is set to make another MLB rehabilitation appearance for the Timber Rattlers as their starting pitcher. Game time is 6:40pm.
