Cougars win 11th straight home series

In an offensively front-loaded game, the Kane County Cougars (33-13, 69-45) scored 7 runs in the first three innings as they took the rubber game from the Great Lakes Loons (19-27, 57-57) with a 7-3 score on Thursday. The victory marks the 11th consecutive home series win for the Cougars. The last time the Cougars dropped a series in Geneva was June 3rd-5th against the Bowling Green Hot Rods.

With 4 lead changes in the first three frames, the Cougars scored their first run on Henry Castillo's RBI single in the opening frame to tie up the contest 1-1.

An inning later Victor Reyes gave the Cougars their first advantage of the night with a run-scoring triple to plate Elvin Soto with 2 outs. Great Lakes committed the first of their 2 errors of the evening in that second inning to score Reyes for a 3-1 lead.

Ethan Elias (10-4) was charged of his first 2 earned runs in the third frame when Willie Calhoun took the Cougar starter deep to knot the ballgame at 3.

Castillo quickly retaliated with a long ball of his own that began a 4-run third frame. After Castillo's second homer of the season, Dawel Lugo provided an RBI single and Joe Munoz sacrificed a run home. Another Loons' error allowed Lugo to score and caused Great Lakes to pull Grant Holmes (6-3).

After Elias finished the fifth inning to put himself in line for the win, the Cougars bullpen worked 4 nearly perfect frames. Ryan Burr, Jency Solis, Luis Ramirez and Zac Curtis tossed 4 scoreless innings to end the game, only allowing two singles and striking out 5.