Cougars stifled by Railcats' pitching

One day after the Kane County Cougars shut out the Gary SouthShore Railcats, Gary returned the favor as Adam Heidenfelder and Chris Erwin combined to shutout the Cougars in a 4-0 victory for the Railcats on Wednesday afternoon at Northwestern Medicine Field.

In his first start of 2022, Heidenfelder (1-0) tossed 5 shutout innings, while allowing just 3 hits. The right-hander struck out 7 hitters without allowing a walk. Following Heidenfelder's, departure Chris Erwin earned the rare 4-inning save, allowing just 1 hit with 5 strikeouts against 1 walk.

The Railcats (2-3) struck first against Cougars (3-2) starter Ryan Tapani (1-1). In the top of the fourth, Javeyan Williams led off the frame with a triple before Daniel Lingua drew a walk and stole second. After a Michael Cruz strikeout, Alec Olund smacked a 3-run homer over the left field wall to put Gary ahead 3-0.

Gary added on in the top of the sixth. After Lingua reached on an error and Cruz walked, Olund lined a single up the middle to score Lingua and make it 4-0.

Despite taking the loss, Ryan Tapani earned a quality start for the Cougars. Tapani tossed 6 innings and allowed just 4 hits, while striking out 8 hitters against 3 walks. Jose Fuentes and Pearson McMahan also tossed scoreless innings out of the bullpen for Kane County.