Ulysses in his turn told her what he had suffered, and how much trouble he had himself given to other people. He told her everything, and she was so delighted to listen that she never went to sleep till he had ended his whole story. – Book XXIII of The Odyssey

Mike Reed’s two-run single in the third.

The Timber Rattlers ended the road trip with a 5-7 record -with one rainout.  Wisconsin went 1-2 in Burlington, 2-1 in Quad Cities, 1-2 at Peoria, and 1-2 at Beloit.

Clint Coulter was held out today, too.  Just precautionary.

Jose Sermo tried to avoid a tag on a grounder to second on the inning ending double play in the top of the third.  He could not avoid the tag and tweaked a little something.  He was limping a bit when the team got back to Appleton.  We’ll see where that goes for tomorrow.

It’s a shame because Sermo started that seven-run third inning and capped it, too.  He singled to start the frame.  Scored on a double by Tyrone Taylor. Singled to drive in the final two runs in the inning.

The Rattlers did a great job going back through the center of the diamond against Dakota Bacus, the starter for the Snappers.  Four of their first five hits were singles right through the middle of the infield.  The only hit that wasn’t up the middle was Taylor’s line drive double that the third baseman barely had time to get his glove up to get a piece of the ball.

Two hits for Tyrone Taylor on Thursday.  Good.  That should get him started.

Michael Reed drove in a run in the top of the first and probably saved a run in the bottom of the first.  He singled to drive in Alfredo Rodriguez for a 1-0 lead.  Then, the wind fooled him a bit on a line drive down the left field line off the bat of Brett Vertigan.  Reed came in, realized he had to go back, and had to run to the foul line as the bat was slicing off the bat of the left-handed leadoff batter.  Reed made the catch, staggered, tumbled, and held on for the out.   Reed ended the day – his first game as the cleanup hitter in the lineup – with two hits, three RBI, and a runs scored.

The wind was crazy today.   It was blowing straight out at about 25mph and was gusting to 31mph.  Fortunately, it didn’t affect much within the game.

Orlando Arcia with two more walks on the day.  He now has more walks (16) than strikeouts (15) in 177 plate appearances. His slashline is .253/.331/.316 through 47 games.

Tyler Wagner kept the ball down – 12 ground outs: 2 flyouts – and threw strikes – unofficially 96 pitches/70 strikes.  No walks with four strikeouts.  That’s a pretty good recipe for success.

One point to make about Wagner.  The Snappers had runners at second and third with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning.   Instead being too fine and walking the next batter or going for a strikeout and getting burned on another hit to extend the inning, Wagner just went after the guy and got him to ground out.  So what if a run scored.  It’s still 9-1 and there are two outs.  You can go far by doing that.  Keep doing that.

If you look at the picture up top, you’ll notice that there is a cameraman  behind home plate.  He works for WREX.  There are some highlights from the games off on the right side of the page here.

The team is home for the next ten games.  Let’s do what we can for good weather and come on out to see the team face Peoria, Beloit, and Clinton.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute. – Josh Billings

It was a nice day and it didn’t rain.

Rattlers 0
Snappers 3
Boxscore | Game Story

Michael Reed hit a ball to the wall in the fourth inning with Tyrone Taylor at first base.  Brett Vertigan made a catch against the wall to rob Reed of extra bases.

I still can’t believe the Christopher Bostick’s home run was a home run.  It barely made it over the fence in left-center.  It was hard to tell if it went out of the park because it went over all the white signs by the scoreboard.  It looked like Reed in left and Taylor in center couldn’t believe that it went over the fence either.

Eric Semmelhack had 71 pitches (47 strikes) in four innings.  He had a 25 pitch first inning that included a walk and a single to the first two batters (on full counts) and strikeouts to the next three batters.

Max Walla was charged with a caught stealing in the fourth inning.  He was not running until the ball popped away from the catcher.  I have seen that ruled as a regular 2-4 putout instead of a 2-4 caught stealing. Not this time.

The Beloit pitchers faced the minimum (21 batters) through seven innings despite a pair of hits.  Reed singled but was caught stealing. Walla reached on a fielder’s choice and we have already covered that.

Victor Roache had the other hit for the Rattlers on Wednesday.  He doubled in the eighth inning, but was left stranded.  The two-base hit was his fourth of the season.

I know that I keep saying this, but I saw stuff today that I have never seen on a baseball field.

1. Renato Nunez was at second with two outs.  Chad Lewis hits a grounder to Mike Garza at third.  Garza was going to go to first with the throw for the final out.  But, he had trouble with the ball.  Nunez was about to run into the out on the bases.  So, he started to head back to second.  Garza reset his targeting system to throw to Alfredo Rodriguez covering second.  He threw. He hit Nunez on the shoulder.  But, the ball deflected to Rodriguez and Nunez turned to head back to third.  Rodriguez tossed the ball to Orlando Arcia covering at third.  Arcia applied the tag for the final out.  If you remember, Garza hit the base umpire with a throw to first in Tuesday’s game.  The Rattlers on the infield better watch out tomorrow (Aside: Kidding, Mike)
2. There was a halt in play in when the Rattlers were batting early in the game – I think it was the second inning with Victor Roache at the plate.  I couldn’t figure out the reason for the stoppage.  I looked for a ball on the field or a fan on the field or a dog or maybe something like a bat weight was too far out in foul territory.  The umpire just stood there waiting.  Then, there was movement  in the left field wall to the right of the Best Western sign (Check the picture).  The wall MOVED.  It looked like it MOVED!  Then, I realized that it was a Beloit player from their bullpen.  He had managed to camouflage himself in the white of the sign by putting a white towel over his head and the colors in his uniform.  He must have snuck out there while everyone else was busy during the change over between innings.  He was out there for one pitch.  Then, the umpire spotted him.I think someone saw the end of A Game of Shadows on the last road trip (Skip ahead to 1:33).I wish there was film of this. Because I’ll bet you think I am making this up to pad out this post where not a lot happened in a 3-0 loss.  I’m crazy and do have my moments, but I am not that good.  I must find out who did this.
   

UPDATE: HERE! PHOTOS! AS IN PLURAL!

The most memorable part of the game, the #whitewallninja twitter.com/hilarybauer7/s…

— Hilary Bauer (@hilarybauer7) May 29, 2013

Instagram doesn’t lie

He – #33 Dakota Bacus, who is Thursday’s starter for the Snappers – may have also just seen GI Joe 2 and is cos-playing Storm Shadow because he was moving along the wall.

Final game of the road trip starts Thursday morning at 11am.  Then, home!