Top Brewers prospects lead High-A team to comeback victory, playoff series win

While the Milwaukee Brewers are closing in on their latest playoff berth, some of their minor league squads are already in the thick of their own postseason runs. Last night, one of those teams advanced to their league's championship round.

The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers played in game two of their Midwest League divisional series on Thursday needing one more win to propel them into the league title game. After a thrilling back-and-forth affair, a win is exactly what they got as they walked it off in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-6 comeback victory over the Quad City River Bandits.

Will Rudy kicked off the game for the Timber Rattlers as the starter for the day and cruised to begin his outing. He held Quad Cities scoreless for the first four innings, striking out seven batters over that span.

While the River Bandits were finding a way to score, Wisconsin ended up striking first. Following a two-out double by No. 2 Brewers prospect Cooper Pratt, No. 8 prospect Luke Adams launched a bomb deep to left to give the team an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd.

Attempting to protect that lead, Rudy ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Back-to-back two-out RBI singles by the River Bandits would give them a 3-2 lead and chance the Timber Rattlers starter from the game.

Quad Cities would have an opportunity to add on to that lead in the top of the seventh. With just one out, the Timber Rattlers would find themselves staring at runners on first and third before the infield turned an amazing double play to get out of the inning unscathed.

From there, it would be a back and forth affair. Wisconsin would tie things back up in the bottom of the seventh on a Jheremy Vargas RBI double, and after the River Bandits took the lead back in the top of the eighth, the game would be tied once again on another RBI double from Ramon Rodriguez.

In the top of the ninth, it looked like things might not end in the Timber Rattlers' favor. Fielding errors by Pratt and Adams would help lead to two runs for Quad Cities, giving them a 6-4 lead. As it turned out, that would just set the stage for a thrilling end of the game.

Down to their last three outs, it didn't take long for Wisconsin to mount their threat. A walk by Tayden Hall followed by singles from Vargas and Hedbert Perez loaded the bases with no outs. The first run came when No. 16 prospect Luis Lara hit a grounder to short and beat out the attempt to complete a double play, resulting in a run-scoring fielder's choice that cut the lead in half.

Then with runners on the corners, Pratt hit a single to right to tie the game. Lara just missed coming around to score as well for the win, instead getting thrown out at the plate, but the throw allowed Pratt to move to second, bringing Adams up with a chance to win it. And the big righty delivered.

The win gave the series to the Timber Rattlers and sent them on to the Midwest League championship series. There, they will take on the Lake County Captains, winners of the Midwest League East Division.

With Lake County owning homefield advantage, the only home game on the docket for the Timber Rattlers is this Sunday, the series opener. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm CDT for fans hoping to see one of the organization's squads finish the quest for a league championship!