Cougars walk-off grand slam clinches series in 6-4 win

The Kane County Cougars found themselves trailing two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Kansas City Monarchs Saturday night at Northwestern Medicine Field, but that all changed with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the inning.

The Monarchs (39-29) took control of the game early against Konnor Ash after Yoyner Fajardo singled his way aboard. He later stole second and ended up at third after a deep fly out to right. Then, Micah Pries picked up his fourth single of the series to score Fajardo and give Kansas City a 1-0 lead. The Cougars (31-35) were quick to respond in the bottom of the inning against Blake Goldsberry. Josh Allen and Marcus Chiu each picked up hits to set up runners at the corners. Todd Lott then had a swinging bunt, and Allen broke for the plate. Goldsberry’s throw was off-line, and Allen scored to tie the game, with Lott and Chiu getting to second and third. Then, in his Cougar return and against his former team, Alex McGarry picked up his first single with a grounder through the right-side hole, scoring Chiu and giving the Cougars a 2-1 lead.

McGarry didn’t just produce with his bat. After putting out three of the first four outs for the Cougars in right field, McGarry tracked a deep fly ball by Alvaro Gonzalez down the rightfield line. He leapt up and robbed Gonzalez of a homerun to keep the score at 2-1. For the next five innings, Ash and Goldsberry put on a clinic with a scoreless pitching duel. That all changed however in the seventh inning. Ash started the inning with his seventh strikeout of the game, but then hit Ross Adolph with a pitch, and walked Gonzalez and Josh Bissonette to load the bases. What followed was three wild pitches in an at bat against Kyle Leitch that cleared the bases for the Monarchs, scoring three runs and gave Kansas City a 4-2 lead.

After that, Casey Crosby (3-3) weathered the storm for the Cougars pitching 2.1 innings scoreless and striking out three along the way. The Monarchs turned to Hunter McMahon (1-1) to close the game and give the Monarchs their first win of the season. With one out, Trendon Craig worked himself aboard with a walk. Then, Allen hit a soft-hit grounder to third that was bobbled, setting up runners at first and second with one out. Chiu then muscled a ball past the infield to load the bases. The Cougars set up with the bases loaded, had their big slugger Todd Lott step up with an opportunity to win the game. On the second pitch of the at-bat, McMahon hurled a fastball high in the zone. Lott turned on it and crushed it. The ball sailed 426 feet over the leftfield wall, and the Cougars won with a walk-off grand slam 6-4. Todd Lott floated around the bases and was met with the water cooler and his screaming teammates as Kane County wins their third straight.