Cougars beat Peoria, wrap up winning homestand

Fending off a late rally, the Kane County Cougars (7-5, 46-33) wrapped up a winning homestand Monday with a 5-4 triumph over the Peoria Chiefs (7-5, 37-44). Victorious right-hander Curtis Taylor (3-4) was perfect through his first 5 innings and the Cougars scored on a 3-run homer for Ramon Hernandez, with RBI basehits from Raymel Flores and Marcus Wilson as well.

Facing Wisconsin native, and eventual losign southpaw Evan Kruczynski (0-1), the Cougars managed instant offense in the first inning. After basehits from Flores and Mark Karaviotis, Hernandez (5) blasted a 3-run home run, his second homer this series.

Building their lead, the Cougars posted another multi-run inning in the fourth. With 2 outs, Ben Deluzio ripped a double, sending Kruczynski out of the game. Righty Frederis Parra (1-1) allowed an RBI double to Flores, as Marcus Wilson sent a single RBI up the middle, his first knock of July. At the end of four frames, the Cougars led 5-0.

The Cougars' starter had an immaculate game on the mound. With a perfect game through 5, Peoria got their first hit to lead off the sixth. On broken bat flair to right, Nick Plummer ended Taylor's quest of perfection with a single.

Taylor was taken out of the game in the sixth as Peoria got back in the game, plating 4 vruns. With Taylor starting on the mound in the inning, the Chiefs managed to load the bases as righty Tyler Mark (4-2) came into the game. Mark then allowed an RBI single to Vince Jackson and a 2-RBI double to Juan Yepez. J.R. Davis furthered the rally with a sac-fly RBI, as Mark finally escaped the inning maintaining a 5-4 Cougars lead.

At the end, the Cougars picked up dazzling relief work from right-hander Sam Lewis (1), who notched the save. Lewis worked the final inning and two-thirds of no-run, no-hit work, sending down the Chiefs 1-2-3 in the final frame.