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Cougars beat Great Lakes 4-1

Getting the homestand off to a winning start, the Kane County Cougars (17-11) took down the Great Lakes Loons (13-18) by a 4-1 score on a chilly Monday night from Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva. In ace form, Cougars' starter Jon Duplantier (2-0) tossed a six-inning quality start with help from the Cougars offense in the third and seventh innings.

After being shutout by West Michigan the two prior games, the Cougars scored first Monday with a pair of runs in the third inning. With 2 outs and 2 men on base, the Cougars' catcher Jose Herrera pierced a basehit to left-center field, scoring Luis Basabe. The next man up, Jazz Chisholm, chopped a groundball to first that was mishandled for an error, allowing another run.

Meanwhile, Duplantier (2-0) was dominant, facing his only bit of run-scoring adversity from Great Lakes in the top of the sixth inning. The lone run scored against Duplantier was an RBI basehit from infielder Brendon Davis. But Davis was thrown out by the catcher Herrera trying for second base to end the Loons offensive threat.

Duplantier earned the victory, logging a season-high 6 innings on 5 hits, allowing 1 run (none earned), with 7 strikeouts and no walks. The Rice University product has never pitched fewer than 5 innings in an outing this season.

The Cougars' offense came up with 2 more runs in the home half of the seventh inning. After Loons starter Jordan Sheffield (0-2) exited, righty Gregorio Sequera (0-0) surrendered an RBI basehit to Manny Jefferson. The next run scored on a throwing error into left field by catcher Keibert Ruiz, his second error of the night.

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