(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) GRAND CHUTE – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers made their final home game of 2026 one of their most memorable of the season. The Rattlers rallied from an 8-4 deficit to defeat the South Bend Cubs 11-10 on Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field in front of 6,396 fans.
The Cubs (72-50 overall, 33-27 second half) got on the board first with a run. Josiah Hartshorn had a sacrifice fly to knock in a runner from third.
Wisconsin (65-56, 31-28) responded immediately in the bottom of the third. Luis Lameda singled and Edgardo Ordόñez homered to the party deck in right-center for a 2-0 lead. The home run was the first by Ordόñez since June 11, 2025.
South Bend went in front again in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run by Logan Poteet.
Jarrette Bonet, the Wisconsin starting pitcher who was making his Midwest League debut, left after five innings. He allowed three runs on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
The Cubs added to their lead in the sixth inning against Yerlin Rodriguez. Alexey Lumpuy drove in the first run with a single. A two-out walk by Rodriguez loaded the bases. Leonel Rodriguez singled to left to score another run. Fortunately for Wisconsin, Tyler Rodriguez was able to throw out Lumpuy at the plate for the final out of the inning.
The Rattlers climbed back to within a run in the bottom of the sixth without a hit. Cubs reliever Luke Alwood walked three straight Rattlers to load the bases with no outs. Lameda knocked in a run with a groundout. Ordόñez made it 5-4 with a sacrifice fly.
Jacob Quezada, Wisconsin’s third pitcher of the game, had runners at second and third with two outs in the top of the seventh. He walked Poteet on a 3-2 pitch to extend the inning. Lumpuy made Quezada and the Rattlers pay for that walk when he lined a triple to the corner in right to score all three runners for an 8-4 lead.
Eric Bitonti and Luis Castillo got the Rattlers back into the game after the stretch. Bitonti doubled with one out. Castillo followed with a long home run to right. Castillo’s nineteenth home run of the season brought he Rattlers to within two runs.
The Timber Rattlers made their move in the eighth inning and got a little help from the Cubs on an error that opened the door for the comeback.
Lameda singled to start the inning, the sixth time in eight innings on Sunday Wisconsin put the lead-off runner on base.
There was one out when Sawyer Strosnider hit a ground ball back to the mound. Cubs pitcher Ethan Bell fielded the ball cleanly but threw wildly to second base. Instead of an inning ending double play, Wisconsin had runners at first and third with Bell leaving the game in favor of JP Wheat.
Danie Dickinson singled to score Lameda and pull the Rattlers to within a run.
Bitonti was next and he drilled a double off the fence in front of the Wisconsin bullpen to drive in two runs for a 9-8 lead.
Then, Castillo ripped a double to right to score Bitonti.
Tyler Rodriguez capped the inning with a double off the wall in center with two outs to plate Castillo for an 11-8 advantage.
Michael Fowler took over for the top of the ninth. He retired the first two batters before giving up back-to-back homers by Poteet and Lumpuy that let the Cubs get to within 11-10. Fowler got the final out for his fourth save of the season.
Lumpuy drove in five runs, and Poteet had three RBI to lead the Cubs offense.
Seven Timber Rattlers hitters had two hits in the game. They had seven doubles out of their fifteen hits. Bitonti drove in two runs to give him 85 on the season. Castillo, who has 84 RBI on the year, and Ordόñez both had three RBI on Sunday.
Wisconsin was officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday. Quad Cities won their game at Beloit to stay 6-1/2 games up on the Timber Rattlers with only six games remaining in the season.
Saturday’s game
GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers made the South Bend Cubs sweat a lot late in the game on a cool Saturday night at Neuroscience Group Field in front of their largest home crowd of the year. The playoff-bound Cubs, the team with the best record in the Midwest League, were able to hold on for a tense 7-6 win that all but ended the already slim playoff hopes of the Rattlers.
The Cubs (72-49 overall, 33-26 second half) were up 3-0 three batters into the game. The first two hitters reached on a walk and a single against Wisconsin starting pitcher Andrew Healy. Then, Angel Cepeda hit a homer over the wall in center. It was Cepeda’s third homer of the series and his ninth with South Bend.
Wisconsin (64-56, 30-28) struck back in the bottom of the fourth. Luis Castillo hit a lead-off home run to center, his seventeenth of the season. The homer also gave Castillo eighty RBI on the season.
Healy departed the game with a runner on first and one out in the top of the sixth. Chandler Welch took over on the mound and got an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, one of four twin killings turned by Wisconsin on Saturday night. Healy’s final line was 5-1/3 innings pitched, three runs, five hits, three walks, and two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the sixth, Castillo cut South Bend’s lead to one when hit another lead-off homer. This one was a line drive to right for his eighteenth homer of the season to match his professional high. Castillo also hit eighteen home runs with the Carolina Mudcats in 2024.
However, South Bend got both of those runs back with a two-out rally in the top of the seventh. Welch struck out the first two Cubs in the seventh. He hit Matt Halbach and gave up an RBI double to Justin Stransky. A walk to Josiah Hartshorn extended the inning before Jose Escobar singled to knock in Stransky for a 5-2 lead over Wisconsin.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Rattlers loaded the bases with no outs. They got one run on a one-out walk to Eric Bitonti but left three stranded when the inning ended.
The Cub scored two more runs in the top of the eighth. Reginald Preciado doubled to drive in the first run. Halbach followed with an RBI single for a 7-3 lead. The Cubs had two on with one out when Welch got another inning-ending double play.
Noah Edders, the Cubs second pitcher of the game who entered with two outs in the third, went back out for the bottom of the eighth. Yannic Walther singled and Juan Baez doubled to open the inning. Jackson Kilpatrick relieved Edders after a popup recorded the first out. Kilpatrick proceeded to make things very interesting by walking Blayberg Diaz to load the bases, hitting Sawyer Strosnider to force in Walther, throwing a wild pitch to let Baez race home, and walking Daniel Dickinson to reload the bases.
Adam Stone was called in from the Cubs bullpen, and he walked Bitonti to force in Diaz and the Rattlers were within a run.
Unfortunately for the faithful in the stands, Stone found his composure and retired the next two batters to leave the bases loaded. He would go on to retire the Rattlers in order in the bottom of the ninth to earn his second save of the season.
The Timber Rattlers left eleven runners on base and went 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position. There were six popouts and four strikeouts out of the fourteen outs made by the Rattlers with runners in scoring position.
Comments