Kane County Cougars see ninth-inning rally go for naught vs. Sioux City
The Kane County Cougars strung together three runs to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Sioux City Explorers got the job done in extra innings to hold on for a 4-3 win on Friday night at Northwestern Medicine Field.
The Explorers (2-0) got the scoring started in the fourth inning after Austin Davis drew a walk and Luis Toribio reached on catcher interference. Two batters later, Abdiel Layer grounded a ball to short that was thrown past Todd Lott at first, scoring both Davis and Toribio to give the Explorers a 2-run lead. Layer crossed home one batter later when Dario Gomez hit a single to push the lead to 3-0.
On the mound the Cougars (0-2) arms of Tommy Sommer, Daniel Bies, Jordan Martinson and Jake Stevenson (0-1) combined for 9 strikeouts and limited Sioux City without a hit from the fourth until the 10th inning. However, the offense was limited until late in the ballgame.
Kane County waited until the ninth inning to wake up the bats. Thomas Jones started by smacking a leadoff single. Todd Lott drew a walk in the next at-bat, and then Josh Allen drove in the first run of the game for the Cougars, scoring Jones.
After Claudio Finol laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Lott and Allen to second and third, Nick Dalesandro grounded out to third but scored Allen on the play to put the Cougars down by 1. Oscar Santos then delivered the biggest hit of the game for the Cougars, singling down the right field line to drive in Allen and tie the game.
In the 10th inning for Sioux City, Gomez laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Layer to third. He then scored on a sacrifice fly into left field by Torin Montgomery.
The Cougars had early success in the bottom of the 10th inning after Trendon Craig drew a walk, and Armond Upshaw was hit by a pitch. But despite having the bases loaded and nobody out, the Cougars couldn’t push past the game-tying run and fell to the Explorers 4-3. Chase Jessee (1-0) earned the win for Sioux City by pitching a scoreless 10th.