Cougars crush DockHounds, score 15 runs on 21 hits

Following a 12-5 win Saturday, the Kane County Cougars continued to crush the baseball Sunday, collecting 21 hits on the way to a 15-7 victory over the Lake Country DockHounds at Northwestern Medicine Field.

The Kane County (10-5) bats immediately jumped on Lake Country (8-7) starter Jesse Remington (1-2). Cornelius Randolph led off the bottom of the first with a single before reaching third on a ground ball that was misplayed off the bat of Sherman Johnson. A Steve Lombardozzi single brought in Randolph to make it 1-0.

Following Lombardozzi's single, Jimmy Kerrigan doubled in Johnson and Rolette singled to score Lombardozzi and Kerrigan to make it 4-0. Two batters later, BJ Lopez crushed a 2-run homer off the score board in left-center to make it 6-0. Later in the inning, Alexis Pantoja singled, stole second and came in to score following 2 DockHounds errors to cap the scoring in a 7-run first.

The Cougars continued to pour on in second and third innings. Pantoja doubled to score Dylan Busby in the third and push the lead to 8-0. In the third, Rolette blooped an RBI single before a Dylan Busby double down the right-field line made it 10-0.

After the DockHounds scored 2 runs in the top of the fourth, The Cougars added a pair in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Kerrigan and an RBI single by Busby to make it 12-2.

Lake Country would go on to add 3 runs in the seventh and 2 in the eighth, while the Cougars added 3 more runs for a 15-7 final. Ryan Tapani (2-1) earned the victory for the Cougars, as he worked 5innings and allowed just 2 runs on 2 hits with 7 strikeouts. Six separate Cougar hitters recorded multiple hits and eight hitters drove in at least 1 run.