Kane County Cougars move within two games of first place

The Kane County Cougars (45-36) rallied for six unanswered runs in the middle innings and held off a late Milwaukee Milkmen (48-35) comeback Thursday night, earning a 7-5 victory and their first series win over Milwaukee this season. The win moves the Cougars within two games of first place in the East Division.

TJ Sikkema (2-0) turned in one of his best start of the season, going a season-long six innings while allowing two runs on four hits and striking out five. Milwaukee struck first when Yordys Valdés tripled and scored on a groundout by Delvin Pérez, but Sikkema settled in and kept zeroes on the scoreboard the next five innings, retiring six straight to finish his outing.

The Cougars finally broke through in the fifth. After Milwaukee starter Cody Templeton (3-2) had retired 10 straight and gone hitless through 4⅔ innings, Sam Dexter launched a two-out solo homer to tie the game at 1-1.

Kane County then exploded in the sixth. Zane Spinn, Armond Upshaw and Josh Allen opened the inning with three straight singles before Matt Bottcher crushed a three-run triple into the right-center gap to give the Cougars a 4-1 lead. Todd Lott followed with an RBI single, and Nick Dalesandro added another RBI single later in the inning to make it 6-1.