Cougars keep River Bandits scoreless again

Led by the pitching of starter Jon Duplantier (4-0) and a resurgent late-innings offensive showing, the Kane County Cougars (23-16) took down the Quad Cities River Bandits (19-20) 5-0 Friday night. The Cougars have now held the River Bandits to 18 scoreless innings for two games at Northwestern Medicine Field.

In yet another pitcher's duel, the two starters battled all night in a contest that felt like it could be decided by a single run. Scoring first in the fifth inning, the Cougars broke through against Quad Cities' starter, righty Enoli Paredes (0-3). Paredes, who suffered the loss, allowed back-to-back base hits and a walk to load the bases. With newcomer Adam Walton on third, he scored on a wild pitch to the backstop as the Cougars went up 1-0.

That's all the Cougars pitching staff would need, guided by the firm support of Duplantier. Duplantier was electric going 6 innings on just 4 hits and no runs with 6 strikeouts next to 3 walks. Duplantier through 33⅓ innings pitched in Geneva, has not allowed a single earned run.

To take a 5-0 lead, the Cougars put up 4 runs in a decisive seventh. After righty Ronel Blanco (0-0) managed 2 quick outs, an error at shortstop extended the inning. With Anfernee Grier aboard, Marcus Wilson singled, setting up an RBI knock for Mark Karaviotis. The Cougars weren't done. A groundball to third was mishandled for another score, with two more runs coming courtesy of an RBI-single from Jose Herrera and an error at shortstop, the third error of the frame.

In to close out the game for three effective innings and the save, righty Jake Winston (1) slammed the door shut for the Cougars second straight shutout.