Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Kane County


July 4th, 2004

The Cougars had to score early and then late to finish off the win in the opener of the series against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Steve Bondurant pitched, he didnt have his best stuff but was able to keep the team in the game untill the offense woke back up and scored two runs in the eighth.

Bondurant got into trouble in the first inning. Michael Nesbit led off the game with a double down the left field line. Nick Orlandos followed that up with a single to right. That would mean runners on the corners with nobody out.. Bondurant then started to weave his magic. He struck out Adam Jones and Bryan LaHair for the first two outs. Then got Chris Colton to pop out to third to get out of trouble.

The good news is that the Cougars gave him two runs to play with in the bottom of the first. Brian Ingram led off with a double past the centerfielder. Luis Perez then was hit by a pitch. Brian Snyder would walk to load the bases. Vasili Spanos singled to left to bring home Ingram. Dustin Majewski then flew out to deep center, for some reason the runners didnt tag up. Kory Wayment followed that by reaching on a fielder's choice, on the play Spanos would be out at second, and the throw to first would be late. That would allow Perez to score. David Harriman then struck out to end the inning.

Bondurant got through an easy second inning but would get into more trouble in the third. Michael Cox led off with a single to left, he would then get greedy and try for second and be out. Nesbit doubled to right. Orlandos then singled to center with Nesbit scoring. Orlandos then stole second base. Jones and LaHair would strike out again, this time as the final two outs of the inning.

With two outs in the fourth inning, Harriman was hit by a pitch. Trevor Brown would then single to center. Luke Appert singled to right to allow Harriman to score. Appert would be picked off of first, Brown saw that and tried for home and would be seen and thrown out to end the inning.

The fifth inning saw both team get runners on base and not score anyone. A leadoff single, followed by a double play. Then a walk and a fielder's choice would end it for the Rattlers. The Cougars on the other hand, had a great chance. Ingram lead off with a triple off the top of the right field wall. Perez struck out, on strike three it looked to me like he held up on the check swing attempt. Snyder then grounded to second with the infield in for the second out. Spanos grounded to short to end the inning.

A leadoff homer for Wladimir Balentien that just went over the left center field wall helped the Rattlers. Two outs later, Orlandos singled to center. Jones then would be called out on batters interference, when he hit Harriman in the back of the helmet on the back swing.

With the score three to two going into the bottom of the eighth the Cougars looked like they might need a few insurance runs in the game. They would get two of them in the inning. Snyder leadoff with a single to right. Spanos followed with a homer to right field.

I will say this the umps in the game were horrible for both sides, the home plate ump Jesse Redwine was especially ridiculous in his calls. Cougar manager Dave Joppie was tossed in the game for arguing. Please somebody give these umps a rule book and lock them in a room for awhile to study it.


Rattlers
Name POS AB R H RBI
Michael Nesbit LF 5 1 3 0
Nick Orlandos DH 5 0 2 1
Adam Jones SS 5 0 0 0
Bryan LaHair 1B 4 0 1 0
Chris Colton RF 3 0 0 0
Eric Blakeley 3B 3 0 1 0
Chris Collins C 4 0 0 0
Wladimir Balentien CF 4 1 2 1
Michael Cox 2B 4 0 1 0
Cougars
Name POS AB R H RBI
Brian Ingram SS 4 1 2 0
Luis Perez RF 2 1 0 0
Chris Tritle RF 1 0 0 0
Brian Snyder 3B 3 1 1 0
Vasili Spanos 1B 4 1 2 3
Dustin Majewski CF 4 0 0 0
Kory Wayment LF 4 0 0 1
David Harriman C 3 1 1 0
Trevor Brown DH 3 0 2 0
Luke Appert 2B 4 0 1 1


E-Snyder (16), LOB-Rattlers-10, Cougars-7, RLISP-Rattlers-5, Cougars-3, 2B-Nesbit 2 (4), Ingram (18), 3B-Ingram (2), HR-Balentien (12) (Pickens)(4), Spanos (9) (Bilke)(1), RBI-Orlandos (6), Balentien (37), Spanos 3 (57), Wayment (24), Appert (38), SB-Orlandos (4), Colton (14), DP-Colton (Bondurznt)(6-4-3), Collins (Bondurant)(6-4-3)
Wisconsin 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 12 0
Kane County 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 X 5 9 1
Rattlers
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison WP BK HB AB BF GB FB NP S
Jason Mackintosh 7 5 3 3 2 8 L (2-3) 0 0 2 25 29 4 8 106 71
Austin Bilke 1 4 2 2 0 2 ND 0 0 0 7 7 1 0 27 19
Cougars
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison WP BK HB AB BF GB FB NP S
Steve Bondurant 6 7 1 1 2 7 W (11-4) 0 0 0 23 25 3 5 93 65
J.R. Pickens 2 3 1 1 0 1 ND 0 0 0 9 9 3 1 29 17
Jose Corchado 1 2 0 0 0 2 SV (1) 0 0 0 5 5 1 0 14 11
HB-Perez (Mackintosh), Harriman (Mackintosh), BI-Jones, SO-Nesbit, Orlandos, Jones 2, LaHair 2, Collins, Balentien 2, Cox, Ingram, Perez, Snyder, Spanos, Majewski, Wayment 2, Harriman, Brown, Appert, BB-Colton, Blakeley, Snyder, Brown
T-2:55
A-12,093

Notes
With his 11th win of the season Steve Bondurant is now tied for 6th all time on the Cougars single season wins list with Ramon Castillo (01), Will Cunnane (94), Drew Dickinson (03), and Mike Parisi (95)




Alumni News:
Phil Akens was released by the Marlins
Bobby Chouinard was released by the Astros