(TIMBER RATTLERS) COMSTOCK PARK, MI – The West Michigan Whitecaps surged past the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with three runs in the fifth inning and went on to a 5-3 victory in the series finale at LMCU Ballpark on Sunday afternoon. The teams combined for five home runs on a warm and windy afternoon.
Jadher Areinamo wasted no time in extending his hitting streak to eleven game and giving the Timber Rattlers (34-34 overall, 0-3 second half) a 1-0 lead when he hit a one-out, solo home run to left in the first inning.
Max Clark, the #1 prospect in the Detroit Tigers system, tied the game in the bottom of the first with a two-out, solo homer to center.
Hedbert Pérez put the Rattlers back in front in the top of the second with a long, solo home run to right-center.
Wisconsin tacked on another run in the third inning. Juan Baez and Areinamo had singles to start the frame. Blake Burke grounded into a 5-4-3 double play with runners at the corners with Baez scoring on the play for a 3-1 advantage.
West Michigan (47-21, 3-0) took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. Seth Stephenson checked his swing on a 3-2 pitch from reliever Bayden Root and was hit on the forearm. Wisconsin appealed, but Stephenson was ruled not to have swung, and the tying run came to the plate in the person of Kevin McGonigle.
McGonigle hit a two-run homer on a 2-2 pitch from Root to tie the game.
Clark bunted for a hit on the next pitch. He was still at first base with two outs and Austin Murr at the plate. Then, Clark stole second and scored on a bloop single to left by Murr on an 0-2 pitch.
The Rattlers had two runners on with one out in the top of the seventh against Freddie Pacheco after a hit batsman and a walk. Pacheco got out of the inning with a 5-3 double play.
The Whitecaps added a run in the seventh inning on a home run by John Peck off Jack Seppings.
In the top of the ninth, Luiyin Alastre singled with two outs against Joe Adametz. That was the first Rattler hit since the third inning. It brought the tying run to the plate, but Adametz got a strikeout to end the game.
Four West Michigan pitchers combined for thirteen strikeouts in the game.
Areinamo was 2-for-4 on Sunday. He is 19-for-44 (.432) during his eleven-game hitting streak.
The Rattlers ended their two-week trip to Michigan with a 5-6 record. They were 4-2 at Great Lakes on the first leg of the trip, and 1-4 with a rainout against the Whitecaps.
The Timber Rattlers start a home series with the Quad Cities River Bandits at Neuroscience Group Field on Tuesday night. Anthony Flores (2-3, 4.22) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Game time is 6:40pm.
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