Cougars fall short in offense-heavy contest

The Kane County Cougars dropped the middle game of the final series of the season losing 8-6 to the Peoria Chiefs Sunday evening from Northwestern Medicine Field.

Cougars starter Emilio Vargas found trouble early on as he coughed up 4 runs in the second inning. The Cougars responded with 2 runs in the bottom of that second frame receiving an RBI single from Adam Walton and a run-scoring base hit from Frank Christy.

Peoria kept up with their offense though, finding the scoreboard in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

The Cougar bats kept up as well, just not as destructive. Showing off more signs of power, Manny Jefferson belted his third home run of the year in the fourth off of Anthony Shew. Ramon Hernandez batted home Anfernee Grier in the fifth before Grier launched his fourth homer of the season off of Leland Tilley in the seventh.

The Cougars made things interesting in the ninth as they brought the tying run up to the plate in Adam Walton. The Cougar infielder slapped an RBI single off of closer Yeison Medina to bring the winning run up to the plate. Medina induced a game-ending ground ball to Frank Christy to earn his 11th save of the year.

The Cougars received three innings of relief work from Trevor Simms, who only allowed 3 unearned runs. Cal Becker provided 4 innings of just 1-run baseball to eat up an important chunk of the contest.