Cougars sweep DockHounds

The Kane County Cougars clinched a sweep over the Lake Country DockHounds with a 5-1 victory in front of 6,368 fans on Sunday night at Northwestern Medicine Field.

Once again, Kane County (25-21) benefitted from a quality start, this time from Jose Fuentes (3-1). The right-hander allowed just 1 run on 7 hits with 2 strikeouts against 3 walks across six innings of work. It was the sixth consecutive quality start from Fuentes.

The Cougars got on the board in the bottom of the third inning against Lake Country (17-30) starter Evan Kruczynski (3-2). With two outs, Ernie De La Trinidad drew a walk before Steve Lombardozzi smacked a double down the line to score De La Trinidad and make it 1-0. Then, Cornelius Randolph hit a bloop single to score Lombardozzi and push the lead to two runs.

Kane County added two more in the fifth inning. Following a two out walk from Randolph, Jimmy Kerrigan crushed a two-run home run over the score board in left field. Kerrigan's team-leading 16th home run made it 4-0 Cougars.

In the top of seventh the DockHounds threatened by loading the bases with nobody out against Fuentes. Tristen Carranza then hit an RBI single to make it 4-1 before Fuentes was removed from the game. Entering a bases-loaded, nobody out jam Jack Anderson retired three straight hitters with a strikeout, pop out and groundout to keep it a 4-1 game.

After Anderson's effort, the Cougars added an insurance run as Dylan Busby drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh to make it 5-1. Anderson went on to pitch a scoreless eighth and Logan Nissen tossed a scoreless ninth to finish off the win and a three-game sweep for the Cougars.