Cougars’ Marimon, Byrne combine for no-hitter

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Sugar Ray Marimon pitched quite a sweet ballgame Wednesday night, combining with reliever Chas Byrne to fire a 9-inning no-hitter as the Kane County Cougars beat the Cedar Rapids Kernels 2-0 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The no-hitter was the seventh in Cougars history, the first since 2008 and the first nine-inning no-hitter since 2003.

Marimon (3-2) worked 7⅔ innings to notch the win. He pitched 4 straight perfect innings and retired 17 in a row. He walked the lead-off hitter in the second and third innings and had 1 wild pitch in an otherwise perfect performance.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Kernels’ Ricky Alvarez reached on a throwing error by Angel Franco, and Marimon departed after throwing 101 pitches. Byrne came in and got Daniel Eichelberger to line out to right to end the inning. Byrne worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his second save.

The Cougars (15-25) gave Marimon all the support he needed in the first inning. Franco led off the game with a triple against Brian Diemer (4-3) and scored on a grounder by Alex Llanos to make it 1-0. In the fifth, Franco singled home Travis Jones, who had singled, taken second on a wild pitch and gone to third on a sacrifice bunt.

The Cougars have won six of their last eight games, and the victory Wednesday gave them their road series win of the season. The Kernels (20-19) have lost nine straight.