(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Lake County Captains took advantage of a break in the top of the sixth inning to score five runs with two outs to blow open a close game against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field. Lake County beat the Rattlers 6-1 for their third consecutive win and their fourth in the first five games of the series.
The game was scoreless through four innings before Lake County (63-53 overall, 25-26 second half) broke through on a big swing.
Tyler Howard hit a two-out, solo homer in the top of the fifth inning to give the Captains a 1-0 lead. That was the first hit of the game for Lake County off Jayden Dubanewcz, the Wisconsin starting pitcher.
In the top of the sixth, Dubanewicz gave up a lead-off double and recorded his fifth strikeout of the game before he gave way to reliever Chandler Welch.
Welch walked the first two batters he faced to load the bases. He rebounded to get the second out of the inning with a strikeout and get ahead of Howard 0-2. Wisconsin thought Welch had struck out Howard on a check swing, but Howard was ruled not to have gone around to keep his at bat alive. Two pitches later, Howard blooped a single to left to score two runs.
José Pirela was next to face Welch, and they battled for ten pitches. Welch again got ahead 0-2. Pirela fouled of a pair of 1-2 pitches and three 2-2 pitches before hitting a three-run home run to right for a 6-0 lead.
The Rattlers (61-53, 27-25) managed two hits off Lake County starting pitcher Jacob Zibin. Tayden Hall had a one-out double in the second and Yannic Walther singled with one out in the third. Zibin retired the next eleven batters he faced and completed six scoreless innings with no walks and a pro single-game high for strikeouts with seven.
Xavier Martinez, the first Captains reliever, extended the number of consecutive Rattlers retired to fifteen before he walked Luiyin Alastre with one out in the eighth. Zane Petty got the final two outs of the eighth with strikeouts.
Wisconsin avoided the shutout with a run in the bottom of the ninth. Daniel Dickinson and Sawyer Strosnider had back-to-back singles with one out. Both moved up a base on a balk by Petty. Eric Bitonti hit blooper to left that was run down by Tommy Hawke for the second out, but Dickinson was able to tag and score on the sacrifice fly.
Bitonti’s RBI was #70 on the season for him.
The series finale is Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field. Andrew Healy (0-1, 3.00) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. The Captains have named Nelson Keljo (0-1, 4.61) as their starter. Game time is 1:10pm.
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