Cougars even playoff series
DAVENPORT, Iowa - The Kane County Cougars faced a must-win situation Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park, and their 5-run second inning proved to be enough.
They held on to defeat the Quad Cities River Bandits 5-4 in Game 2 of the best-of-three quarterfinal playoff series.
Jonathan Joseph pitched 5 innings for the win, and the Cougars used 2-run homers by Rashun Dixon and Conner Crumbliss to fuel the offense.
The Cougars had not scored a run in 22 consecutive innings when Dixon belted his shot home run off Michael Blazek in the second. Mike Gilmartin followed with an RBI double. Crumbliss smashed his 2-run shot to make it 5-0.
Joseph gave up his only run in the second and struck out seven. He yielded 2 hits and walked three.
Ryan Doolittle gave up 2 runs in the sixth, Josh Lansford worked 2 perfect innings, and Jose Guzman, Max Peterson and Bo Schultz each recorded a strikeout in the ninth to end it.