Rough start too much for Cougars

After grabbing a brief advantage in the top of the first inning, the visiting Kane County Cougars gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the first, and the Peoria Chiefs waltzed from there to a 4-1 victory on Saturday night.

Silfredo Garcia (3-3) retired the first two batters of the game before falling behind 2-0 to the Cougars’ Dan Vogelbach, who planted a fastball to the back of the right field patio deck to put the Cougars in front 1-0. It was Vogelbach’s 15th home run of the season.

Tayler Scott (4-6) took the ball in the bottom of the first with the lead but didn’t record an out before giving it up. C.J. McElroy started the damage by blooping a double to right. Charlie Tilson’s bunt single pushed McElroy to third. Breyvic Valera evened the score at 1-1 with a base hit to center, knocking in McElroy. Jacob Wilson followed by crushing a 2-run double to left-center, bringing home Tilson and Valera.

Scott tossed up a pair of scoreless innings but coughed up another tally in the bottom of the fourth to the Chiefs (56-45, 18-16). Nick Martini cracked a leadoff single and advanced around to third on consecutive groundouts. McElroy bounced a base hit to center, putting Peoria up by 3.

Scott allowed 9 hits through 5 innings. Garcia limited the Cougars to just 4 hits in his 6 innings.

Peoria’s bullpen was strong with Sam Tuivailala fanning five of the seven hitters he faced in the seventh and eighth innings. Zach Russell got his fifth save, working around a two-out double to Rock Shoulders to close it out in the ninth.