Craig’s hit lifts Kane County Cougars to home victory

In a back-and-forth game, the Kane County Cougars came out on top 3-2 against the Kansas City Monarchs on Friday night at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva, clinching at least a series split.

The Cougars (30-35) struck first this time around in the second inning against Josh Hendrickson (7-3) when Armond Upshaw blasted a no-doubt home run over the left-center field wall, giving the Cougars an early 1-0 lead. In the third inning the Cougars hit paydirt again when Darryl Jackson worked a walk to lead off the inning. A few batters later, Marcus Chiu roped a double into left-center field, scoring Darrly Jackson on a bang-bang play at the plate, and extending the lead to 2-0.

For the Monarchs (39-28), they got to Jack Fox in the fourth inning. Ross Adolph doubled himself aboard, and a single by Alvaro Gonzalez into right field on the next at-bat scored Adolph and cut the lead to 2-1. They added onto that in the top of the sixth. Blake Rutherford reached on an error, and then Alvarez struck again with his second RBI on the game to tie the game up 2-2.

Zach Veen (2-1) steadied the ship and kept the score tied, setting the stage for a Cougars comeback.

In the seventh inning Oscar Santos shot a single into center field. Nick Dalesandro laid down a bunt to move Santos to second, setting up Trendon Craig to smoke a single into left field. Santos raced around third and with a close play at home, was called safe giving the Cougars a late 3-2 lead.