Lake Country tops Cougars

In a tightly contested ballgame, the Kane County Cougars fell 3-1 to the Lake Country DockHounds on Sunday afternoon at Northwestern Medicine Field. A third straight Lake Country (43-43) win led to the first sweep of the Cougars this season.

The DockHounds took the lead in the top of the second against Cougars’ (48-39) starter Jack Fox. Curtis Terry singled to lead off the inning followed by a Josh Altmann walk to put two runners aboard. Following a fly out, JT Benson drove in the first run with a single. After giving up the run in the second, Fox was excellent. The right-hander finished the day allowing one run on five hits with four strikeouts against two walks over five innings of work.

It didn’t take long for the Cougars to respond against Brett Conine. In the bottom of the second, Josh Allen and Claudio Finol were both hit by a pitch before Simon Reid walked to load the bases. Armond Upshaw drove in Allen with a sacrifice fly to even the game at one.

The game remained tied at one until the top of the eighth inning. Vin Timpanelli (0-1) was on the mound for the Cougars. To lead off the inning, Samuel Benjamin hit a double to right-center field. Timpanelli retired Luke Napelton before Jordan Martinson entered. Martinson induced a groundout from Blake Tiberi for the second out. Tyler Beardsley entered to face Chavez Young, who came through with a double off the wall to score Benjamin and make it 2-1. Demetrius Sims with a single to bring in another run to push the lead to 3-1.

After gaining the lead, Lake Country reliever Mitchell Mueller pitched a perfect eighth inning. In the ninth, closer Alan Carter tossed another perfect inning to earn the save. JT Moeller (2-0) earned the win for Lake Country with a scoreless inning of work in the bottom of the seventh.

The Cougars left 11 runners on base.