Cougars garner comeback win

A devastating eighth inning turned into a clutch comeback victory for the Kane County Cougars (25-25) as they evened the series against the Peoria Chiefs (25-25) with a 4-3 win at Dozer Park Saturday afternoon.

After seven shutout innings from Markus Solbach, Jency Solis and Zac Curtis couldn't hang onto the Cougars' 3-0 lead in the eighth. With two outs, Danny Diekroeger singled home two runs for the Chiefs first scoring play of the ballgame bringing Peoria within one. Closer Zac Curtis (2-2) was then called in, but gave up the game-tying single to Vaughn Bryan for his first blown save of the season. Curtis struck out Alex DeLeon to keep the game tied.

The Cougars' offense prevailed in the top of the ninth inning, taking advantage of a Peoria mistake. After Soto reached first on an error by the Chiefs' second baseman Darren Seferina, Ildemaro Vargas connected on his second hit against his former team and set the table for Victor Reyes. The Cougar outfielder sent an RBI single up the middle to put his team back in front with a 4-3 advantage.

Curtis retired the Chiefs in the ninth sealing the Cougars' victory.

The Cougars grabbed their first lead with a two-run fifth. After a run scoring on an error, Colin Bray battled in a lengthy at-bat before tripling home another run for a 2-0 Cougars' advantage.

Reyes provided his first RBI in the seventh bringing home Vargas for the third Cougar run.

Solbach picked up his fifth quality start keeping the Chiefs scoreless through seven innings with only two hits allowed. Going back to a complete-game shutout from last season, Solbach has thrown 16 scoreless innings against the Chiefs in his career.

Blake McKnight (2-2) suffered the loss.

Sunday's Cougar starter will be Wei-Chieh Huang (1-0, 0.00) restarting the Cougars' rotation. First pitch from Dozer Park will be at 5 p.m.