Bees top Cougars, tie series

BURLINGTON, Iowa — The Kane County Cougars grabbed an early 1-0 lead Thursday night but mustered just 1 hit after the third inning and eventually fell 5-1 to the Burlington Bees at Community Field in Game 2 of their playoff series.

With the opening-round, best-of-three series even at one game apiece, both teams face a must-win situation in Friday night’s Game 3.

Angel Franco gave the Cougars a quick 1-0 advantage Thursday when he homered off Josh Bowman in the third, but Bowman (1-0) retired his final 11 batters to get through 6 innings.

Meanwhile Cougars starter Yordano Ventura had posted a pair of scoreless innings before running into trouble in the third. He faced eight batters and five straight reached at one point as the Bees took a 4-1 lead.

Ventura (0-1) gave up 4 runs on 5 hits, walked one and struck out three in 3 innings. Antonio Cruz tossed 3 scoreless relief innings with 5 strikeouts, and Edwin Carl yielded a run in the eighth.

In addition to Franco’s homer, the only other Cougars hits were a first-inning single by Brett Eibner and a ninth-inning single by Cheslor Cuthbert.