Kane County Cougars falter in late innings vs. Cleburne

Another late-game push for the Cleburne Railroaders (34-24) topped the Kane County Cougars (31-25) to move two games ahead in first place of the East Division Saturday night. Despite tying things up in the seventh and threatening in the ninth, the Cougars fell 9-7 in front of 6,516 at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

For the third straight game, Cleburne scored at least four runs in their final inning at the plate. Tied 5-5 in the ninth, the Railroaders sent 10 batters to the plate to take a 9-5 lead. Trendon Craig’s RBI sacrifice fly and Armond Upshaw’s RBI single brought the tying run up to the plate, but a foul out ended the game.

The Cougars scored three unanswered runs starting in the sixth to tie the game in the seventh, but that’s as close as they would get.

Cleburne started their offensive night with two unearned runs in the first inning. Upshaw launched his third home run of the season in the first inning to get the Cougars on the scoreboard. Ernny Ordonez also homered (4) in the fifth.

Cougars starter Tommy Sommer was on the hook for the loss until the Cougars tied things up in the seventh. Tyler Beardsley (0-3) suffered the loss after allowing the 4-run ninth.