Red-hot Cougars win fifth straight

With their season-high fifth consecutive victory, the Kane County Cougars reached .500 for the first time since the season began as they defeated the Dayton Dragons 6-1 on Saturday night in front of 10,697 at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in Geneva.

Oliver Zapata put the Cougars (13-13) on the board as he cracked an opposite-field home run in the bottom of the third. An inning later, the Cougars’ Jeimer Candelario walked and scored on a double play groundball off the bat of Willson Contreras.

Felix Pena (1-0) worked 7 innings, holding the Dragons (9-19) to a run on 4 hits with 7 strikeouts.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Cougars blew the game open. Pin-Chieh Chen singled and Dan Vogelbach and Rock Shoulders drew walks to load the bases. Contreras delivered a 3-run double and Bijan Rademacher drove home Contreras with a double.

Justin Amlung recorded the final six outs after replacing Pena in the eighth.