ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The Timber Rattlers defeated the River Bandits 6-2. Wisconsin broke a 2-2 tie with four runs in the top of the eighth inning. Alex Liddi drove in the go ahead run with a single. Joe Kantakevich pitched 1-1/3 innings of shutout relief to pick up the win.
EARLY BACK-AND-FORTH: The River Bandits broke a scoreless tie with a run in the bottom of the third inning on an error by Rattler shortstop Terry Serrano. Wisconsin tied the game with an RBI single by Israel Nunez in the fifth inning. Wisconsin took the lead in the sixth when Joe Dunigan scored from third on a passed ball. The Bandits evened the game on an RBI single by D’Marcus Ingram in the bottom of the sixth.
JUAN LAST START: Juan Ramirez made his final start of the 2008 season last night. The righty out of Nicaragua struck out seven without walking a batter and allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits over 6-2/3 innings. Ramirez will finish the ’08 season second on the Rattlers in innings pitched (124), strikeouts (113), and starts (22).
BREAKING THROUGH: Edilio Colina reached on a throwing error by River Bandit third baseman Domnit Bolivar to start the eighth inning. Joe Dunigan followed with a single off River Bandit reliever JD Stambaugh. Then, Liddi dropped in his single to drive in Colina. Joe White got hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Stambaugh got a strikeout to record the first out of the inning. That brought Matt Frevert out of the River Bandit bullpen.
ADDING ON: Alex Meneses gave Wisconsin a 4-2 lead by drawing a bases loaded walk against Frevert to force in a run. Nunez singled in a run and a sacrifice fly by Daniel Carroll plated the final run of the inning.
O, ISRAEL! Nunez was hitting .154 with three RBI in the first half of the season. Since the Midwest League All-Star break, Nunez is hitting .257 with 13 RBI to bump those totals to .229 and 16.
THE MONTH OF DUNIGAN: Dunigan scored two runs last night to give him 20 runs scored in the month of August. Dunigan leads the Rattlers in runs, home runs (5), RBI (14), home runs (5), and is tied for the team lead in stolen bases (7) and hits (29) during August.
CARROLL’S ARM: Daniel Carroll threw out Ross Oeder at the plate when Oeder tried to scored from second base on a hit by Jon Edwards in the bottom of the eighth inning. Carroll has five outfield assists in the last nine games.
TOSSING ZEROES: Rattler reliever Jose Escalona pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a non-save situation. He has not allowed a run since allowing a home run at Peoria on August 15. Escalona has a scoreless streak that has reached 10-1/3 innings.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: The Quad Cities River Bandits are the Midwest League affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They missed out on the playoffs in both halves of the season. Quad Cities is 66-65 overall and 33-34 in the second half. The River Bandits are 35-29 at home this season. In their most recent series, the River Bandits split a four game series at Burlington.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST: The Timber Rattlers are hitting .242 as a team and have scored 509 runs (3.8/game). Wisconsin has hit 60 home runs this season. The Timber Rattler pitching staff has a combined ERA of 3.84. Quad Cities is hitting .241 as a team. They have scored 553 runs (4.2/game). The Bandits have hit 97 home runs this season. The Quad Cities pitching staff has a combined ERA of 3.79.
2008 SEASON SERIES: The Rattlers lead the season series 7-4. Wisconsin and Quad Cities split a four game series at Modern Woodmen Park to open the 2008 season. The Rattlers won the first two games of a series on Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium that was scheduled for four games from June 5-8. The games on June 7 and 8 were rained out. The teams split the four game series in Grand Chute August 21-24.
QUAD CITIES STARTING PITCHER: RH Chuckie Fick was the 15th round pick of the Cardinals in the 2007 out of Cal State Northridge. He went 2-0 on two stops in the St. Louis minor league system last season. Fick went 1-0 with two saves in eight relief appearances for Johnson City in the Appalachian League and 1-0 in nine relief appearances for Batavia in the New York-Penn League. In 2007, Fick struck out 25 and walked 11 over 39 innings between Johnson City and Batavia. Fick joined the River Bandits in early May and is 5-5 in 19 games (12 starts). Tonight is his first appearance against the Timber Rattlers and his first ever appearance against an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. In his last start prior to this evening, Fick won at Burlington on August 23. He allowed three runs on seven hits over seven innings against the Bees. Fick walked two and struck out four.
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