Kernels complete 3-game sweep of Cougars

The Kane County Cougars got excellent starting pitching for the fifth game in a row on Tuesday afternoon, but they ran into trouble late in the game and lost, 6-1, to the Cedar Rapids Kernels in front of a season-high 7,406 fans at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva.

The Cougars got swept in the three-game series and are 0-6 against the Kernels this season.

Starter Greg Billo tossed 5 innings of shutout ball but had to leave in the sixth inning due to his pitch count. He scattered six hits, walked one and fanned six in the no-decision. The Cougars starters in the last five games have allowed just three earned runs in 35 innings but are 1-1, and the team is 1-4 in that span.

Nick Wooley took over for Billo with two on and two outs and got out of the jam in the sixth, but he got touched for one run in the seventh after a single and a pair of hit batsmen. Then in the eighth the Cougars committed three errors and gave out seven bases, as the Kernels pushed their lead to 4-0. Chase Boruff worked the top of the ninth and yielded two runs for a 6-0 game.

The Cougars avoided the shutout with a run in the bottom of the ninth. Ryan Jenkins advanced his hitting streak to five games with a two-out RBI double that scored Gerard Hall. The Cougars have scored just 29 runs in their last 10 games and have lost nine of them. Max Russell (2-2) got the win for the Kernels (17-8) with seven shutout innings.

The Cougars (8-18) continue their six-game home stand Wednesday night at 6 p.m. with the start of a three-game series against the Quad Cities River Bandits.