Cougars snap losing skid

BELOIT, Wis. - Behind a career outing from winning right-hander Sam McWilliams, the Kane County Cougars snapped a three-game losing skid with a 5-1 win over the Beloit Snappers. McWilliams set a career high with 9 strikeouts over 7 scoreless innings limiting the Snappers to just 3 hits, all singles.

The Cougars received all 5 of their runs in the first four innings against losing southpaw Kyle Twomey (1-2). In the first, Ben Deluzio led off with a single and the next batter, All-Star Anfernee Grier, walloped a 2-run homer over the field wall, the only tallies the Cougars would need in this triumph.

In the third, the Cougars added another tally. With 2 outs, Luis Silverio plugged a double to the left field wall for an RBI, his team leading 17th two-bagger this season. The Cougars lead on Twomey swelled to a trio.

With the exclamation point, the Cougars posted 2 more runs in the fourth. Again with 2 outs, the Cougars struck with a 2-RBI single through the right side from All-Star Marcus Wilson. That put the Cougars with a 5-run cushion behind the scoreless work from McWilliams.

McWilliams has now worked seven innings in his last three outings, and was able to spread 3 singles over three different frames in his second win over Beloit in as many attempts.

Working the final two innings, righty Trevor Simms (1-0) capped off the victory. After an error at shortstop in the final inning, Mike Martin scored the only run for Beloit to avoid the shutout.