The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers watched the South Bend Cubs hit ten home runs and win the first four games of this week’s six-game series at Neuroscience Group Field. Rattler hitters Hedbert Pérez and Kay-Lan Nicasia let the Cubs know how that felt as they both homered in the bottom of the seventh inning to erase a 2-0 deficit and propel Wisconsin to a 3-2 win on Saturday night.
Tanner Gillis was the Wisconsin starting pitcher as he made his second appearance off the injured list. Gillis allowed two hits over three scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
The Cubs (33-53 overall, 10-10 second half) broke through in the top of the fourth without a hit and with help from a bout of wildness from reliever Anthony Flores. The first two batters of the inning walked. Flores appeared to settle down as he struck out the next batter and was ahead of Ivan Brethowr with two quick strikes. The next pitch was inside, and the Rattlers appealed on a check swing that was ruled a ball. Brethowr insisted that the ball had grazed his right leg and – after a brief discussion between the umpires – first base was awarded to Brethowr to load the bases. Miguel Pabon followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.
Flores walked the next batter to reload the bases. Then, he walked Rafael Morel to force in the second run of the inning.
Wisconsin (40-45, 6-14) struggled to get anything going against Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Gallagher, who retired the first sixteen Rattlers he faced in the game. Yhoswar Garcia singled with one out in the bottom of the sixth to be Wisconsin’s first base runner of the game.
That changed after the seventh inning stretch. Blake Burke singled to start the inning. Pérez was at the plate with one out and crushed the first pitch of his at bat to right for a game-tying, two-run home run. Pérez has eleven homers this season with four of them against the Cubs.
Nicasia stepped in with two outs and none on base to face Gallagher. Nicasia also jumped the first pitch from Gallagher to launch a go-ahead home run to right-center to give the Rattlers a 3-2 lead.
Wisconsin’s bullpen carried that one-run lead to the finish line. Yerlin Rodriguez, who had entered in the seventh inning, pitched a perfect eighth. Aaron Rund got the call for the ninth inning and pitched around a two-out single by Preciado by striking out Morel to end the game.
The final game of the series is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field. Sam Garcia (1-5, 6.21) is set to start for the Timber Rattlers. Connor Schultz (0-3, 4.91) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Cubs. Game time is 1:10pm CDT.