Maybe, the umpiring also gets much better as the pitchers move up, there are some pretty generous zones in A ball.

Final: Quad Cities 4, Wisconsin 2

Quad Cities cracks walkoff homer to beat Wisconsin
By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

DAVENPORT, IA - Virgil Hill beat the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with his feet on in the bottom of the ninth inning on Friday night. The Quad Cities River Bandits outfielder beat the Rattlers with his bat on Sunday. Hill hit a two-run 'walkoff' home run in the bottom of the ninth at Modern Woodmen Park for a 4-2 win over Wisconsin.

Quad Cities (35-34) took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single by Luis Mateo. The inning started with a four pitch walk to Anthony Garcia. David Medina's double put runners on second and third with no outs. Mateo followed with a single to score Garcia, but Rattlers starting pitcher David Goforth got out of the inning without allowing another run.

An unlikely Rattler tied the game with a home run. John Dishon launched an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the top of the fifth inning to the grass seating beyond the wall in left-center. The homer was the first of the season for Dishon.

The Bandits went back in front in the bottom of the fifth inning. Colin Walsh knocked in his 56th run of the season with a two-out single.

Jason Rogers, Wisconsin's team leader in RBI, evened the game again with a double into the corner in left. Brandon Macias scored all the way from first on the play to give Rogers his 43rd RBI of the season.

In the ninth, Mateo started the game winning rally with a leadoff single against reliever Chad Pierce. Hill, who scored the winning run from first base on a throwing error in the ninth inning of the River Bandits' walkoff win on Friday night, was up to bunt Mateo into scoring position.

However, Hill fouled the first two bunt attempts. Then, he swung and fouled the next two pitches from Pierce off to stay alive in his at bat.

Hill cracked the next pitch to the base of the a pillar that holds up the scoreboard at the top of the grass seating area in left-center for the game winning homer.

Wisconsin finishes the first half with a record of 44-25. That is the second best record for a half in franchise history. The Rattlers are also playoff bound for the first time since 2005 after they claimed a spot before eventually winning the first half Western Division last week.

The Timber Rattlers are off until Midwest League play resumes on Friday, June 22. Wisconsin will face the Burlington Bees at Community Field in Burlington, Iowa to start a three game series on Friday night at 6:30pm.

Wisconsin's next home game is Monday, June 25 when they host the Quad Cities River Bandits at 7:05pm.

HOME RUNS:
WIS:
John Dishon (1st, 0 on in 5th inning off Kyle Hald, 2 out)

QC:
Virgil Hill (4th, 1 on in 9th inning off Chad Pierce, 0 out)

WP: Ethan Cole (2-0)
LP: Chad Pierce (1-1)

TIME: 2:28
ATTN: 6,937

Wisconsin Box Score
I'm not sure what to say about the way the half wrapped up other than, "At least it wasn't a walk off bunt?". Man I hate Quad Cities.... There will be lots of changes here in the 2nd half, new link reporters, I'll be doing different teams, new players at each level of the organization, but regardless the T-Rats had one heck of a first half, won the title, and made my job on this forum very enjoyable. Thanks to all the players, the staff, and especially Chris Mehring for such a wonderful half, now finish the job!

David Goforth had one of his better starts, I don't see things turning around significantly for him until he overhauls his delivery, he just had too many parts going in too many directions right now. Great athletes can make that work but I'm personally much more of a "KISS" principle type of guy, it's just easier to throw strikes if everything is moving in 1 direction. Right now he falls hard towards the 1B dugout and sometimes pitches from a very low 3/4 arm slot and in the interest of keeping this short that's why I believe he struggles to throw strikes. I don't want to break his mechanics down in great detail here in a LR, but I do believe he has all the tools to be a very successful pitcher down the road if he's willing to change.

David went 5 innings this afternoon allowing 6H, 2ER, 2BB, and 1WP against 4SO lowering his first half ERA to 5.56. Chad Pierce cruised through his first 3 innings, but that 9th inning will linger with him for awhile since it happened right before the break. Still his season to this point is everything the locals could have hoped for and he only allowed the 3 hits, walked none, and struck out 4 in his 3+ it's just one hit was that game winning HR.

Jason Rogers led the way for the offensive side putting up a 2-4 effort with 2 doubles, I sincerely hope he's bumped to A+ after the all-star game, he's earned it. Yadiel Rivera had the other multi-hit game going 2-4, he's hit in 7 of his last 10 and put up a .279 BA over that span. I'd like to see him sustain that pace as he solves breaking pitches and if so then look out Central Division foes, cause we have 2 bona fide SS prospects. Max Walla didn't play much over the last week, hopefully there's nothing physically wrong and he hits like he has the potential too in the 2nd half.

Wisconsin Play By Play
Chris covered it all.

Nine after 9 for June 17, 2012

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