Cougars take Game 1 from Dogs

Thanks to strong team pitching and timely offense, the Kane County Cougars claimed a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Dogs on Monday in Game 1 of the East Division championship series in Rosemont.

The win puts the Cougars one win away from clinching the East Division championship and reaching the Miles Wolff Cup Finals.

In his second start of the postseason, Greg Mahle turned in another strong outing. Mahle allowed just two runs on six hits across six innings of work with six strikeouts and no walks. In relief of Mahle, the Cougars’ bullpen shined with scoreless work from CJ Carter, Jordan Martinson, Vin Timpanelli and Tyler Beardsley.

Both starters cruised early, but the Cougars finally got on the board in the top of the fourth against Kenny Serwa. With one out, Cornelius Randolph was hit by a pitch before reaching third on two wild pitches. Todd Lott blooped an RBI single to right field to make it 1-0. Two batters later, Alex McGarry hit a fly ball to left field that was dropped, allowing Lott to score and make it 2-0.

After Mahle held Chicago scoreless through four frames, the Dogs got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Derek Maiben and Novak hit back-to-back singles to start the frame before moving up on a sacrifice bunt. Nick Dalesandro then drove in Maiben with a single to left field to make it 2-1. However, Mahle ended the threat by getting Jacob Teter to ground into a double play that ended the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Brantley Bell launched a solo homer that evened the game 2-2. However, the Cougars had a quick response. Facing Serwa in the top of the seventh, Claudio Finol belted a one-out solo homer to give the Cougars a 3-2 edge.

Once the Cougars took the lead, the bullpen took over. CJ Carter worked a 1-2-3 seventh and retired Dalesandro to start the eighth. Jordan Martinson struck out Teter, and Vin Timpanelli recorded the final out of the eighth with a groundout.

In the top of the ninth, the Cougars added insurance. Finol led off with a double, but was thrown out at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Hayden Dunhurst. With Dunhurst at first, Galli Cribbs Jr. walked. Trendon Craig singled to score Dunhurst and make it 4-2. Armond Upshaw capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

The series continues at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Geneva.