Hernandez, Bray energize Cougars to win over Whitecaps

Behind a 7-inning start from right-hander Sam McWilliams (1-1) and brilliant offense from Colin Bray and Gerard Hernandez, the Kane County Cougars (8-14, 41-51) took down the West Michigan Whitecaps (10-10, 49-38) in a convincing 8-2 decision.

All of the runs the Cougars scored were unanswered as the Whitecaps 2-0 lead was quickly erased after the fourth inning. The sucker punch frame for the Cougars came in the seventh when Bray's opposite field double gave the Cougars the lead for good. Hernandez and Fernery Ozuna also contributed two RBI a piece.

Cougar starter, Sam McWilliams logged a career high 7 innings tossing yet another quality start. He picked up his first professional win since 2014 only giving up 2 runs on 5 strikeouts with a single walk.

In all three games of the series, the Cougars faced early deficits. This time the Cougars went down 2-0 after the second frame. Brett Pirtle and Jose Azocar bashed base hits and scored on RBI from Arvicent Perez and Jose Zambrano. McWilliams settled down thereafter as the Cougars came back with eight unanswered runs. The Cougars plated single runs in the third and fourth innings with RBI from Fernery Ozuna and Galli Cribbs to tie the game.

The big inning did not occur until the Whitecaps starter, right-hander Beau Burrows (5-4), left the game after 5 innings on two runs.

With two men on in the seventh inning, Colin Bray pierced a double through the left-center gap for the go-ahead 2-RBI knock. Bray intelligently stole third and came home on a Fernery Ozuna base hit through a shifted infield. The Cougars kept the pressure on new pitcher Yordy Cabrera (1-1) as Ozuna scored the fourth run of the frame on a wild throw from home plate. For insurance, the Cougars' Gerard Hernandez socked his third hit of the night to score a pair in the eighth.