Cougars rally, win 6-5 in 10th

CLINTON, Iowa — Trailing most of the night, the Kane County Cougars scored a run in each of the last three innings to defeat the Clinton LumberKings 6-5 in 10 innings Saturday night at Ashford University Field.

Down 4-3 entering the eighth, the Cougars (35-37, 1-1) were able to swing back into a tie as Jack Lopez started the inning with a single and went to second on a Danny Mateo knock. After a sacrifice bunt from Jorge Bonifacio pushed Lopez to third, Michael Antonio hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Lopez to make it a 4-4.

Clinton (24-46, 1-1) grabbed the lead back in the bottom of the eighth as Nate Melendrez walked to begin the inning against Malcom Culver. With two outs, Melendrez was at second base and stole third while Kenny Swab’s throw sailed into left field, allowing Melendrez to cross the plate.

Stephen Shackleford was asked to get the save in the ninth but couldn’t as Lopez doubled home Tim Ferguson with two outs to tie the game at 5-5.

In the 10th, Dean Espy’s two-out infield single scored Alex Llanos after he had reached on an error against John Taylor (1-4).

Rudy Brown (1-0) pitched a perfect bottom of the 10th to cap off 2 innings of scoreless relief.

Bryan Brickhouse made his Kane County debut and surrendered 4 runs in 4-plus innings. Jonathan Dooley rescued Brickhouse in the fifth to help him out of a bases-loaded jam without any more runs scoring.