Cougars let early lead go to waste

Jumping out to a 2-0 lead after Saturday's second inning at Fifth Third Ballpark in Geneva, the Kane County Cougars (32-37) saw the Clinton LumberKings (39-30) go on a 5-0 scoring run to eventually win 6-3. Art Warren (8-1) collected the victory in a quality start besting Cougars' starter, Junior Garcia (3-4) tagged with the tough-luck loss.

With the win, the LumberKings clinched a spot in the Western Division playoffs, tied with Peoria for first place with one game to go in the first half.

The Cougars knew they needed to score early against Warren who has cruised in the later innings as a starter. In the second stanza, a grounder off the mitt of Clinton's Chris Mariscal at second sent two home to score. The play ruled an error gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead behind Garcia.

Everything was going swimmingly untili the fifth frame. With Garcia punching out batters in routine order, Ricky Eusebio disrupted the lefty's rhythm with a two-run home run past left field to knot the game at two a piece.

With the momentum swung, the LumberKings poured on three more runs in the sixth inning. After stroking four RBI in game one, Mariners' top prospect, outfielder Alex Jackson, contributed a double RBI amid an inning that pushed Garcia out of the game and Austin Mason (0-0) into a hole out of the bullpen.

As Warren finally exited after a quality start in the seventh, the Cougars found success against Clinton's southpaw, Dylan Silva. With two outs, Zach Nehrir came up with a clutch RBI line drive single to cut the Cougars deficit to just two runs.

But Clinton once again had an answer with a run of insurance in the eighth inning against the Cougars' right-hander, Cody Clark (3-0). And in the ninth, the Cougars were retired with relative ease by Midwest League All-Star, Darin Gillies (7) who notched the save.

Garcia dealt five innings on just two earned runs in the loss as Warren sits near the top of the leaderboard in the league with his eighth win. It was the second straight loss for the Cougars as the series evened at 2-2.

Sunday's rubber match begins at 1:00 p.m.