Cougars fall 4-1 to Chiefs
PEORIA — Paul Hoilman broke a 1-1 tie with a 3-run homer Sunday to launch the Peoria Chiefs to a 4-1 victory over the Kane County Cougars at O’Brien Field.
Hoilman’s blast came in the fifth inning off reliever Cody Fassold (1-1), who allowed back-to-back bunt singles to Oliver Zapata and Taiwan Easterling to begin the inning.
Both scored in front of Hoilman after his drive landed in the back of the bleachers in left-center.
Peoria (31-32) trailed initially as the Cougars (33-30) picked up the advantage in the third inning.
Lane Adams walked with two outs and advanced to third on an infield hit from Michael Antonio. With Murray Watts at the plate, Antonio broke for second base while Adams sprinted to the plate and slid around the tag from Yaniel Cabezas on the double steal to make it 1-0.
Javier Baez reached on an infield single to start the fourth and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Andy Ferguson to even the score at 1-1.
Ferguson lasted 4 innings in his Kane County debut as he limited the Chiefs to 2 hits while walking four and fanning four.
Austin Reed (3-4) tossed 3 scoreless innings after replacing starter Starling Peralta in the fourth. Felix Pena worked 2 innings, and Yao-Lin Wang (eighth save) pitched a perfect ninth.