This postseason for Lake County hasn’t lacked for close games, coming down to one or two plays or a few inches. Game 2 of the Midwest League Championship against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers remained close for the first six innings before the Captains opened it up late, winning Game 2, 6-2, to send the series to a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sept. 18 at Lake County. Angel Genao, who was perhaps the best player for Lake County for the duration of his time here, opened up it up by finally coming through with a bases-loaded double in the eighth inning, which drove in two runs to make it 6-4. Genao had two doubles to left-center in the game and made a big running play behind second base on a grounder in the top of the eighth inning. “Everybody’s asking that question,” Captains manager Omir Santos said about Genao’s performance from the moment he was promoted to High-A back in early June. “He’s just himself. He’s mature, and working every day. He’s grown up. He’s only 20, but he looks like he’s 25.” Captains outfielder Esteban Gonzalez threw out Timber Rattlers second baseman Jadher Areinamo by just inches, thanks to catcher Jacob Cozart grabbing the throw off the third-base line and reaching back to apply the tag, that ended the fifth inning instead of tying the game at 3-3. Lake County got through the Midwest League semifinals with comeback performances. Down, 2-1, in the bottom of the third, Jonah Advincula came up with a two-out, two-run homer to put the Captains ahead, 3-2, after they had the bases loaded in the first and second inning with two outs but couldn’t get the big hit until later in the game to pull away. Advincula had the game-tying base hit in Game 2 of the semifinals Sept. 10 and has had several clutch hits throughout the season before. “Just taking aggressive swings,” Advincula said of his approach at the plate. “Swinging with good intent and trying to put the ball on the ball. Just keep it simple and help the team win.” Matt Wilkinson delivers Sept. 17 against the Timber Rattlers. (Paul DiCicco – for The News-Herald) Wisconsin had its fair share of traffic stranded as well thanks to reliable Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. Tugboat ran into his share of unusual control issues with a pair of walks and hit Wisconsin infielder Luke Adams twice, and allowed seven hits. Despite that, he worked into the seventh inning, the longest outing of his career, and threw 96 pitches in 6 2/3 innings of work and surrendered just two runs. “In the first inning, he was pushed a little bit, but he had everything working tonight. He was pounding the zone,” Santos said of Wilkinson’s performance. “(Wilkinson) went to his limit (on his pitch count).” Wuilfredo Antunez did allow Lake County to get a little breathing room with a two out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning, which scored Travis Bazzana after reaching on a walk and stealing second base. Bazzana scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning on a fielders choice by Antunez with the bases loaded after walking in the first inning. Bazzana worked a pair of walks and had a base hit. The two teams will play one final game of the 2024 season, with the Midwest League Championship on the line, at Lake County on Sept. 18 at 6:40 p.m. The Captains will send RHP Dylan DeLucia, the 2022 sixth-round pick who made his pro debut this year after recovering from Tommy John surgery and pitched the Ole Miss Rebels to the College World Series in 2022,  and also started Game 2 of the semifinals Sept. 10. The Timber Rattlers will have RHP Will Rudy, the Brewers’ fifth-rounder in 2022, who had a no-decision his last outing in the semifinals against Quad Cities.