Comeback Cougars keep rolling
It took five innings for the Kane County Cougars (14-2, 50-34) to find the scoreboard, but once the offense did, they scored each following inning in an 8-3 victory over the Cedar Rapids Kernels (10-6, 51-35). The Cougars are now on a 14-home-game winning streak and have won 19 of their last 21 games.
Trailing 2-0 into the bottom of the fifth, Michael Perez first got the Cougars on the board with an RBI single to score Colin Bray.
Ethan Elias (9-3) never had an advantage in the contest and left after six innings of 1-earned run baseball for his fourth quality start of the season.
The Cougars' offense struggled to figure out Kernels' starter Zach Tillery (5-4) until the bottom of the sixth. Beginning with Chuck Taylor's leadoff single, the Cougars loaded the bases to knock the Cedar Rapids' starter out of the game. Michael Theofanopolous served up an RBI single to Perez that first baseman Jorge Fernandez was able to knock down, but not able to record an out. To make things worse for Cedar Rapids, a bad throw from Fernandez brought home the tying run. Henry Castillo knocked in the go-ahead run with a single to left field and the Cougars never looked back.
Seven unanswered runs were scored by the Cougars' offense as Cody Regis connected on an RBI single before Colin Bray's second triple of the evening. Chuck Taylor brought home 1 more run with a run-scoring base hit in the eighth.
Nick Baker and Cody Geyer combined for three nearly perfect innings on Friday totaling 5 strikeouts.
The Cougars and Kernels continue this series at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.