Kane County Cougars make first win of the season a shutout

After losing the first two games of the series, the Kane County Cougars shut down the Sioux City Explorers in a 2-0 victory to earn their first victory of the season on Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field.

The Cougars (1-2) dominated on the mound, striking out 12 hitters. In his first start of the season, Chris Mazza dominated with five scoreless innings and six strikeouts. After that Jake Gozzo (1-0) and Logan Nissen controlled things, combining for three more strikeouts. In the ninth inning Tyler Beardsley struck out the side and claimed his first save of the season.

Offensively, all of the Cougars’ scoring came in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two out Todd Lott stepped up against Sioux City starter Zach Willeman (0-1) and singled up the middle. Josh Allen then hit a hard grounder that was fielded by Explorers second baseman Zac Vooletich, but a bad throw to first that went out of play advanced Allen and Lott to second and third. Claudio Finol then hit a groundball to first that was mishandled by Torin Montgomery. Finol beat Montgomery to first base, and both Lott and Allen scored on the play to score the only two runs of the game.