Everyone gets involved as Kane County Cougars wallop Railroaders

All nine hitters in the Cougars lineup smacked at least one hit as the Cougars cruised to a 9-3 victory in the first game against the Railroaders on Tuesday night at Northwestern Medicine Field In Geneva.

The Railroaders (28-31) started the scoring off Chris Mazza with three runs in the top of the fourth inning. Aaron Altherr launched a home run over the right-field wall, and then three straight doubles by Kyle Martin, Steven Rivas and Andres Sosa pushed across two more runs and gave Cleburne an early 3-0 lead.

After that the Cougars (27-31) scored the next nine runs unanswered. It started in the bottom of the fourth when Josh Allen and Marcus Chiu scored back-to-back walks against Derek Craft (5-3). Todd Lott then cracked a single that drove in Allen, cutting the lead to 3-1.

Armond Upshaw was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Claudio Finol. He responded with a blast off the wall to clear the bases on a double and give the Cougars a 4-3 lead. Then, in the bottom of the fifth, the Cougars doubled their runs. Trendon Craig and Allen both singled to start the inning. Chiu then stepped in and launched his seventh home run in 10 games, extending the Cougars lead to 7-3.

Later in the inning, Upshaw belted a solo home run over the left-field wall, making the score 8-3. Kane County would strike one more time in the bottom of the sixth when Allen smashed a double down the left-field line, scoring Zane Spinn and pushing the lead to 9-3.