Sano’s blasts too much for Cougars in home opener
The Kane County Cougars squandered several early scoring opportunities in Monday afternoon’s home opener at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark.
Once the Beloit Snappers got their bats going, the Cougars found themselves in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
The Cougars (2-2) began their home season by jumping out to a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat, as leadoff man Sam Llanos doubled and Michael Antonio singled him home two batters later. But they left the bases loaded when Justin Trapp flied out to end the inning.
“Trapp hit that ball pretty good, but it got caught up in the wind,” Kane County manager Brian Buchanan said. “Any other day that ball is a grand slam.”
Kane County starting pitcher Brooks Pounders looked strong, striking out six and allowing 2 hits through 3 innings.
“(Pounders) pitched well and did a nice job,” Buchanan said. “He kept us in the game.”
Though they consistently had runners in scoring position, the Cougars failed to build on their slim lead — while the Snappers scrapped for runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-1 lead.
“We had our chances early with two outs and couldn’t get the big hit,” said Buchanan, whose Cougars host the Snappers today at noon and Wednesday at 11 a.m. “We kind of fell asleep there in the second, third, fourth and fifth.”
Overcoming their lack of timely hitting during the first five innings, the Cougars grabbed a 4-2 lead in the sixth, thanks to RBI doubles by Jin-Ho Shin and Alex Llanos.
“First 2 at-bats, I struck out,” Shin said. “I was looking for a fastball, and he threw me a fastball and I just swung hard.”
But the lead didn’t last long, as Beloit answered with 5 runs in the seventh, highlighted by a 3-run homer off the bat of 18-year-old Miguel Sano — one of the Minnesota Twins’ top prospects.
“(Sano) just looks like a baseball player, he has really good instincts,” Buchanan said.
The Cougars got back 2 runs in the bottom half of the inning behind singles by Shin and Llanos, who finished the game with 3 hits — including 2 doubles — while driving in a pair of runs.
But once again Sano came up big for the Snappers, blasting another one over the right-field fence in the eighth to extend the lead to 9-6.
Trapp tripled and scored in the bottom of the ninth.
“Overall, we battled and came back,” Buchanan said. “We swung the bats well today.”
The Cougars pounded out 13 hits. Daniel Mateo and Michael Antonio each had a pair of hits and an RBI, and Jorge Bonafacio had 2 hits, including a double, and was on base five times.