Kane County Cougars gear up for playoffs

The Kane County Cougars (48-22, 84-54) finished the 2015 season with a ninth inning rally, but a 6-5 loss to the Peoria Chiefs (42-28, 75-63) on Monday. The Cougars finished with the third best record in franchise history.

Cougars starter Jared Miller (4-5) allowed 4 runs in the first three innings on 7 hits as the Chiefs jumped out to a lead early. Peoria scored a run in the first, two in the second and one in the third.

Dewin Perez (3-6) worked 6 innings of scoreless baseball as the Cougars only collected two hits against the lefty starter.

Victor Reyes became the first Cougar with a hit as he led off the fourth inning with a single.

In the first frame without Perez, the Cougars grabbed a run on a sacrifice fly from Stryker Trahan in the home half of the seventh.

After Peoria grabbed more insurance with runs in the eighth and the ninth, the Cougars went into the bottom of the ninth down by 5 runs.

It took Reyes 306 games to hit his first professional home run when he did it against the Quad Cities River Bandits on Thursday.

The Cougars slugger started off the ninth inning with his second career bomb over the right field patio deck. The Cougars offense didn't stop as they loaded the bases on a walk and 2 singles.

With the bases loaded, Peoria's closer Kyle Grana took the mound and quickly brought the Cougars within three. A 4-pitch walk to Michael Perez forced home a run and brought the potential winning run to the plate. Cody Regis slapped a single up the middle to score 2 more runs and the Cougars were down by just 1 run. Grana held on for his 24th save of the season as he struck out Quinnton Mack to end the 2015 regular season.