(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers were looking for a key hit but couldn’t find it on Sunday against the Quad Cities River Bandits in the final game of the season at Neuroscience Group Field. The Rattlers wound up stranding ten runners, including seven in the final three innings, as they dropped a 4-2 decision to the Bandits.
Wisconsin (53-71 overall, 19-40 second half) took the lead in the bottom of the first. Jesús Made singled and went to second on a wild pitch with one out. Then, Luke Adams walked. Josh Adamczewski followed with an RBI single to score Made for a 1-0 lead.
Kay-Lan Nicasia added to the Wisconsin lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a lead-off home run to left. Nicasia’s fifth homer of the season made it 2-0.
Quad Cities (71-55, 32-28) got on the board in the top of the sixth. Nolan Sailors tripled to start the inning against Wisconsin starting pitcher Manuel Rodriguez. Sam Kulasingam flew out to center to knock in Sailors with a sacrifice fly.
Rodriguez pitched six innings, allowed one run on five hits, walked none, and struck out six for his third quality start of the season.
The River Bandits rallied in the top of the seventh against reliever Aaron Rund. A walk, a single, and a walk to the first three batters of the inning loaded the bases. Hunter Ensley hit a high chopper to short with the only play to first base and that scored the tying run. Sailors hit a grounder to second with the infield in and Made came home with the play, but it was late to score the go-ahead run. Kulasingam added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.
Wisconsin had several opportunities in the final three innings.
The first two batters reached in the bottom of the seventh against Dennis Colleran. A 3-6-3 double play got the first two outs. A hit batsman allowed the go-ahead run to come to the plate. Colleran got out of the inning with a grounder to third.
In the eighth, Tommy Molsky walked the first three batters to load the bases with Rattlers. Zachary Cawyer took over and got out of the jam with a force play at the plate and back-to-back strikeouts.
Nicasia started the bottom of the ninth inning with a single. Cawyer followed that with a wild pitch to move Nicasia to second base. Two strikeouts brought Made to the plate with two away and he drew a walk to get the winning run to the plate.
Adams hit a line drive to right-center field, but the ball hung up for Trevor Werner to race over from right to make the catch to end the game. Wisconsin ended the game 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
The attendance on Sunday was 6,079 to push Wisconsin’s season total to 236,441. In their final eighteen home games of 2025, Wisconsin drew 99,134 fans. They surpassed the 5,000 mark fifteen out of eighteen times in their last three homestands. Sunday was also the fifth time they went past 6,000 in attendance.
Quad Cities picked up a game on the first place Beloit Sky Carp in the second half playoff race. Beloit lost 2-1 at Cedar Rapids on Sunday. The River Bandits are 1-1/2 games behind the Sky Carp with six games remaining in the season.
The Timber Rattlers conclude their season with a six-game road trip to South Bend, Indiana to face the South Bend Cubs. Game one is set for Tuesday night at Four Winds Field. Tanner Gillis (2-2, 2.98) is set to start for Wisconsin. The Cubs have tentatively announced Dawson Netz (0-1, 3.60) as their starter. Game time is 6:05pm CDT.
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