Kane County Cougars fall to Lake Country in front of largest home crowd of the season

The Lake Country DockHounds picked up 11 hits and limited the Kane County Cougars to just four as Lake Country cruised to a 6-1 victory on Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field.

Despite the loss, the Cougars (48-38) hosted the largest crowd of the season, with 9,307 fans in attendance on a beautiful night in Geneva.

Lake Country (42-43) jumped out to an early lead against Cougars starter Greg Mahle (9-2). In the top of the second, Ray Zuberer hit a two-out double before stealing second. Then JT Benson was hit by a pitch and Marek Chlup walked to load the bases. Following the walk, Deivy Grullon hit a line-drive single to left field that scored Zuberer and Benson to make it 2-0.

Two innings later, the DockHounds stretched the lead. Zuberer led off the inning with a single and promptly stole second. After Benson was hit by another pitch, Chlup laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Grullon then drove in another run with a single to make it 3-0. Later in the inning, Chavez Young and Demetrius Sims both knocked RBI singles to push the lead to five runs.

For Lake Country, starter Matt Mullenbach (2-3) cruised through the first three innings. After retiring 11 straight hitters to start the night, the Cougars finally got to Mullenbach in the fourth.

With two outs Cornelius Randolph cranked a double into the right-center field gap for the basehit of the night. Next up, Todd Lott lined a single back through the middle to score Randolph and make it 5-1.