Kane County Cougars open season with slim win before big crowd

The Kane County Cougars opened their season in winning fashion at Northwestern Medicine Field, taking down the Kansas City Monarchs 3-2 in front of a crowd of over 8,000 on Friday night.

The Cougars had early opportunities against Dakota Hudson, putting runners on in each of the first two innings, but couldn’t break through. Kansas City capitalized first in the top of the second, when Saul Garza launched a solo home run over the left-field wall off Konnor Ash to give the Monarchs a 1-0 lead.

Kane County answered in the third. Josh Allen started it off with an infield single, and after Todd Lott worked a walk, Alex McGarry delivered with two outs, lining a basehit into right field to score Allen and even the game at 1-1.

The Cougars grabbed the lead an inning later. Sam Dexter drew a walk to open the fourth, and Zane Spinn followed with a broken-bat single to put runners on the corners. Allen brought home Dexter with a groundout to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead. Shortly after, Matt Bottcher dropped a soft single into center to score Spinn and extend the lead to 3-1.