Cougars build early lead, hold off late Dogs rally

The Kane County Cougars (32-31) jumped out to an early nine-run advantage and held off a late push from the Chicago Dogs (21-42) to earn a 12-8 victory Wednesday morning at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

Kane County wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the first inning against Donny Tober (1-1). After Matt Bottcher and Todd Lott drew back-to-back walks with two outs, Charles Mack unloaded on a fastball and sent it over the right-field wall for a three-run homer, his team-leading 11th home run of the season.

The Dogs answered with two unearned runs in the second following a pair of Cougars errors, but Kane County responded with its biggest inning of the day. Sam Dexter opened the frame with a double before Spencer Rich reached on an error and Armond Upshaw drew a walk to load the bases. Josh Allen cleared them with a three-run double down the left-field line, and Mack added his fourth RBI of the afternoon with a groundout to stretch the lead to 7-2.