Cougars rally past Bees 3-1

It took seven innings to find their first hit, but the Cougars squeezed in just enough of them to comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Kane County Cougars (15-18) broke up a no-hitter and a shutout bid late in the game to beat the Burlington Bees (16-17) by a score of 3-1 at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark Wednesday evening.

Both starters brought no-hitters into the sixth inning as Ethan Elias allowed the first Burlington knock on a one-out single in the sixth. Jeremy Rhoades (3-1) pitched a shade better retiring 15 of 16 Cougars he faced from the second through seventh innings. Rhoades worked with a slim 1-0 advantage produced by the Bees' RBI groundout in the third inning.

Joe Munoz finally grabbed the Cougars' first hit of the day with a leadoff double to left center field. Two batters later Fernery Ozuna singled home Munoz for the Cougars' first run of the game. Victor Reyes singled on a 10 pitch at-bat to bring home Ozuna for the Cougars' first lead. Ryan Gebhardt added an insurance run to plate Reyes for a 3-1 advantage.

Zac Curtis tossed a perfect ninth inning for his fourth save in four opportunities.

Cody Geyer (1-0) picked up the win with 2 innings of scoreless baseball. Rhoades suffered his first loss of the season despite 7⅓ innings of 3-run baseball.

The Cougars and Bees conclude the four-game series Thursday night. Brad Keller (1-3, 2.91) takes the bump for the Cougars against Burlington's Justin Anderson (2-0, 3.76). First pitch from Fifth Third Bank Ballpark is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.