Gary SouthShore romps past Kane County Cougars

The Kane County Cougars fell behind early and could not recover Friday night, dropping the opener of their series against the Gary SouthShore RailCats 10-3 at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

Gary struck first in the opening inning against Ben Kowalski (1-1). After loading the bases with one out, Nick Podkul lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Elvis Peralta and gave the RailCats a 1-0 lead.

The Cougars (15-9) answered immediately. Armond Upshaw reached on an infield single and later scored on a wild pitch from Peyton Long (4-1), tying the game at 1-1 after the first inning.

Kowalski settled in over the next two innings, but the RailCats regained the lead in the fourth when A.J. Orrico lined an RBI triple into the right-center field gap to make it 2-1.

Kane County responded in the bottom half of the inning. After Alex McGarry reached on a single, Zane Spinn turned around a pitch and launched it over the wall in right field for a two-run homer. The blast gave the Cougars a 3-2 lead and marked the first regular-season home run of Spinn's professional career.