Cougars lose 1-0 at home

Two batters into Tuesday's game, the Gary SouthShore RailCats (38-56) grabbed a 1-run lead and used it to beat the Kane County Cougars (42-51) at Northwestern Medicine Field. It was the fourth time the Cougars were shutout this year.

The only run of the game came six pitches into it. Josh Tols (4-7) coughed back-to-back doubles to Michael Woodworth and Billy Cooke.

Tols suffered the tough-luck loss despite 6 innings of 1-run baseball with no walks and 4 strikeouts.

In his American Association debut, Aaron Phillips (1-0) denied the Cougars' offense of any momentum until the seventh inning. After walking none through his first six frames, Phillips walked the first two batters of the seventh and Gavin LaValley followed with an infield single to load the bases. But the Cougars followed with three straight groundouts to miss out on the scoring chance.

Andy McGuire worked 2 scoreless innings of relief before Ryan Richardson kept it a 1-run game with a scoreless 9th. Gary's Tasker Strobel earned his eighth save with a perfect 9th to close out the game.