Cougars come back to beat Peoria

PEORIA - The Kane County Cougars (61-46, 26-12) walked their way to a 7-5 ninth inning comeback win over the Peoria Chiefs (41-66, 11-27) on Wednesday night at Dozer Park. It was the 27th comeback win of the year for the Cougars.

Base hits by Tra Holmes and Alek Thomas setup the first run of the night for the Cougars. Zack Shannon bounced into a force out in the third inning to drive in Holmes and make it 1-0.

However, the Chiefs scratched across all five of their runs in the bottom of the third inning. Seven straight base runners reached against Jackson Goddard, including six straight hits. Edwin Figuera, Brendan Donovan and Carlos Soto all singled in runs. Brady Whalen collected an RBI double.

The Cougars began their climb in the fourth inning on Blaze Alexander's solo homer. In the eighth, Zac Almond got the Cougars within two runs on Zac Almond's RBI double.

Chiefs' reliever Sebastian Tabata tried to protect a two-run lead in the ninth. He walked Tra Holmes and Geraldo Perdomo then hit Alek Thomas to load the bases. With Zack Shannon at the plate, he threw two wild pitches to even the score, 5-5. He ultimately walked Shannon and was pulled from the game with one out in the ninth. Against new pitcher Freddy Pacheco, Dominic Fletcher broke the tie with a single. Alexander added insurance with a single.

Tabata (3-2) took the loss after being charged with all four ninth inning runs. Kai-Wei Lin (3-3) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief. Jose Cuas (4) earned his fourth save of the week with a shutdown ninth inning.