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The Cougars celebrating after their victory.
The Cougars completed the sweep of the Quad Cities River Bandits today and here’s how it all happened:
First Inning: Top: No scoring, Angel Baez pitches a 1, 2, 3 inning.
Bottom: No Scoring. Justin Trapp filed out, Alex Llanos singled then stole second, but then Danny Mateo and Jorge Bonifacio struck out to end the inning leaving Llanos stranded at second.
Second Inning: Top: Baez walked two batters but got two more strikeouts and a fly out to keep the River Bandits from scoring.
Bottom: Michael Antonio started the inning with a ground out to third, but then back to back doubles by Dean Espy and Tim Ferguson gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead with 1 out. Kevin David grounded out to move Ferguson over to third, then Yowill Espinal hits a blooper into right center to score Ferguson. Then Justin Trapp grounded out to end the inning. Cougars take a 2-0 lead.
Third Inning: Top: Casey Rasmus lead off the inning with a single then stole second. A sacrifice bunt by Matt Williams moved him over to third. Stephen Piscotty doubled, then David Medina singled and scored Piscotty to cut the lead to 2-1. David Bergin hit a double that scored Medina. Then a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Patton scored Bergin to give the River Bandits a 3-2 lead.
Bottom: Alex Llanos led off the inning with a double but was tagged out at third off of Danny Mateo’s single. Then Jorge Bonifacio grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Fourth Inning: Top: No scoring, Baez got his game back together.
Bottom: No scoring, the Cougars went down 1, 2, 3.
Fifth Inning: Top: Another three up three down inning for Angel Baez.
Bottom: RBI doubles by Alex Llanos and Jorge Bonifacio give the Cougars a 4-3 lead.
Sixth Inning: Top: Rudy Brown takes over for Baez and gets a 1, 2, 3, inning in his only inning of work.
Bottom: With two out Dean Espy scored on a fielders choice after a bizarre base running play. Cougars extended their lead to 5-3.
Seventh Inning: Top: Despite a lead-off single, pitcher Andrew Triggs gets the next three batters out.
Bottom: No scoring, Justin Trapp led off the inning with a single but nothing more.
Eighth Inning: Top: No scoring, Rudy Brown took the River Bandits down in order.
Bottom: The Cougars once again go down in numerical order.
Ninth Inning: Malcolm Culver surrenders only one hit in picking up the save for Angel Baez.
Angel Baez pitched a solid five innings despite the rocky third inning. Plus it also helped that the Cougars offense came to life this afternoon. The Cougars hitting game today was led by centerfielder Alex Llanos, he was called into action after Lane Adams got promoted to the next level. Today Llanos went 3 for 4 with a double, 2 stolen bases and scored a run. Baez struck out 4 batters in his five innings of work. It must also be noted that Cougars right fielder Jorge Bonifacio broke out of an o-24 slump with with a huge RBI double in the bottom of the 5th which helped put the Cougars up for good.
After the game I spoke with Alex Llanos and when I asked him about his big day at the plate his said the following through team translator Jack Lopez: “It was all about timing today, I saw a lot of fastballs that were easy to hit. I’m ready for everything”
Cougars manager Brian Buchanan also spoke with me after the game and gave a lot of credit to his pitching staff: “Our pitching was great today. They got outs when they needed to, they threw a lot of strikes, and they kept us in the game.”
Between relievers Rudy Brown, Andrew Triggs, and closer Malcom Culver the Cougars bullpen pitched 4 innings, only walked 1, only allowed 1 hit, and struck out 4. The bullpen did not allow a single run today. And now the Cougars have the confidence boost they need and hopefully they will make use of it as they head to Beloit for a four game set which begins tomorrow. The Cougars now seem to be heading in the right direction as they make the push towards the playoffs with just 33 games remaining. Only 14 of those games are at Fifth Third Bank Stadium.
Here is the box score from today’s game: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l118&t=g_box&gid=2012_07_30_qcsafx_kccafx_1
You can follow me on Twitter: @GabeSalgado82 Hashtag: #Q101Sports
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Cougars during pre-game warm ups.
After a sluggish finish to the first half of the season, the Cougars are trying to turn things around. Before the all-star break the Cougars finished the first half of the 2012 season on a five game losing streak. Now in the first few weeks of the second half, the Cougars are just one game over .500 (18-17) and are three games behind the division leading Clinton Lumber Kings. The Cougars overall on the 2012 campaign are 52-53 but are still managing to hang onto third place in the Midwest League’s Western Division, they are only one game behind Burlington.
A win today followed by a Burlington Loss tonight would put the Cougars in second place and give them a one game lead over the Bees. And they hope to do so behind the right arm of 21-year-old Angel Baez. The Dominican pitcher is a solid 5-3 this season with a 2.68 ERA, opponents are only batting .198 against him. Baez is one of six Dominican players on this Cougars team. The Cougars are just 4-6 in their last 10, and combine that with the 5 straight losses before the first half of the season ended one can only ask what is wrong with the Kane County Cougars?
Part of the reason for their recent misfortune is a lack of offense. In their last 14 games the Cougars have only managed to score a total of 40 runs compared to the 50 runs they have given up in that time. Their pitching has struggled to some degree as well. Angel Baez in his last three starts has gone 1-1 with a no decision. If the Cougars can get a good game out of him today and give him some run support, the Cougars have a good chance of winning today. Their opposition on this Monday is the Quad Cities River Bandits, they are the Class-A team for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cougars have already won the first two games of this three game series and are looking to bring out the brooms and sweep this series before heading onto Beloit for a four game series there. A sweep today would give the Cougars a big confidence boost, plus Beloit trails the Cougars by three games and sits in seventh place. Not to mention that the Cougars are looking for payback after Quad Cities took two out of three from the Cougars earlier this month. This would be a huge opportunity for the Cougars to get back in gear and play like they did early on in the season. The Cougars have not had a series sweep since the July 1-3 series at Peoria.
This is the time for the Cougars to get the engines running as they make a push towards the playoffs in September.
Here are today’s starting lineups:
It must be noted that prospect outfielder Lane Adams is not with the Cougars today. He has moved on to the next level in his career, and we here at Q101 wish him the best.
You can follow me during the game on Twitter: @GabeSalgado82 Hashtag: #Q101Sports
The Class-A minor league affiliate of the Kansas City Royals has won two straight games. Even better, these two games have been against the first place team in the Midwest League’s Western Division. After winning the series opener on Saturday, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers were hoping to continue their winning ways, and their dominance in the division. But the Kane County Cougars had other ideas. The Cougars hung onto a 1 run lead yesterday to get back in the win column. And today Lane Adams and company would not be denied.
Behind the arm of Kellen Moen, the Cougars would decimate the Rattlers from top to bottom. After a shaky first inning, the Cougars exploded for 9 runs. All of which were scored during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings. Moen would go 6 innings, strikeout 4, only gave up 2 earned runs and 4 hits. Not bad for someone who was dealing with a stomach virus before the game. On the offensive side, Cougars Third Basemen Michael Antonio provided the big spark that pushed the Cougars to victory. Antonio went 3-4 with a home run along with 4 RBI’s and scored 2 runs.
His home run was actually a grand slam, it was the fourth time that the Cougars had hit one this season. First Baseman Murray Watts also had 2 RBI’s for KC. As for future major league prospect Lane Adams, the centerfielder managed to snag an RBI and score a run. The Rattlers just did not have an answer, and now the pressure is on them to gain momentum back. After the game I spoke with Cougars Manager Brian Buchanan and he said the following: “Kellen was our heart and soul today. We were a little worried before the game because he wasn’t feeling good, but he gave us all we needed.”
As of right now the Cougars gained 2 games in the division, should the second place Beloit Snappers lose tonight the Cougars will gain another game. The Cougars are currently tied in the standings with the Quad Cities River Bandits. And should the Bandits lose tonight, the Cougars will be ahead of the Quad Cities by one game. And that will give them a little breathing room. When I asked Brian Buchanan about the possible division outlook he said: “Right now were not too concerned, the season is still young. Right now were just worried about what were doing day in and day out.”
As for Kellen Moen, he chose not to speak to the media after the game. We here at Q101 hopes he gets well soon. Tomorrow the Cougars wrap up this 4 game series and the first pitch is tomorrow at 11am at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark in Geneva. Robinson Yambati (1-0) will take the mound for Cougars while Wisconsin counters with David Goforth (3-2). Here is the box score from today’s game: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l118&t=g_box&gid=2012_05_14_wisafx_kccafx_1
I got some interviews after today’s game.
Cougars 3rd Baseman Michael Antonio:
Press Conference with future Kansas City Royals prospect Lane Adams:
The Kane County Cougars continued to gain ground in the Midwest League’s West Division after today’s 9-2 victory over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. And here is how it all went down:
First Inning: No Scoring
Second Inning: Sacrifice RBI groundout for Wisconsin OF Max Walla to give the Rattlers a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning. Kane County fights back with a 2-run home run by 1B Murray Watts in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
Third Inning: Wisconsin does not score in the top of the inning. But in the bottom, Kane County loads the bases with a Justin Trapp lead-off triple, and back to back walks by Jorge Bonifacio and Lane Adams. Michael Antonio comes up next and hit’s a grand slam, the teams 4th of the season to give KC a 6-1 lead.
Fourth Inning: Kellen Moen pitches another 1,2,3 inning to keep Wisconsin from scoring in the top. Kane County starts the bottom of the inning with a single by Runey Davis. Jin-Ho Shin strikes out, but then Justin Trapp walks putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Then Danny Mateo comes up with an RBI double to make it a 7-1 game. Jorge Bonifacio then comes up and he gets an RBI single to make it an 8-1 game. Then Lane Adams would get his 25th RBI of the season with a sacrifice to bring in Danny Mateo to make it a 9-1 game.
Fifth Inning: Another 1,2,3 inning by Kellen Moen keeps Wisconsin scoreless for the top of the inning. The Cougars got two runners on base but they were left stranded. KC still lead 9-1 after 5 innings.
Sixth Inning: Yadiel Rivera leads off the top of the inning with a first pitch solo home run, the score was now 9-2. But that wouldn’t phase Kellen Moen as he finished off the next 3 batters in just 7 pitches. But Kane County would be held scoreless for the 5th. It was only their second scoreless inning of the game.
Seventh Inning: Kellen Moen gives up just 1 hit for the inning, but Wisconsin would ground into a double play and strike out to end the top of the inning. The Cougars would have a second consecutive scoreless inning.
Eighth inning: Both teams failed to score and only 1 runner got on base during this inning.
Ninth Inning: Wisconsin goes down 3 in a row to end the game.
Kellen Moen picks up just his 2nd win of the season, Chad Thompson takes the loss for the Timber Rattlers. Keep your browser set to Q101.com for my full post-game report complete with box score. You can continue to follow me on Twitter: @GabeSalgado82 Hashtag: #Q101Sports
Both teams warming up before the game.
Today I come to you from Fifth Third Bank Ballpark {Formally Elfstrom Stadium} in far west suburban Geneva where the Kane County Cougars take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. This is the third game of a four game series that began on Saturday. So far both teams have split this series with Wisconsin winning in 11 innings on Saturday, and the Cougars hanging onto a 1 run victory yesterday. Today both teams will try and go up 2-1 in this series before the final game tomorrow. This series has been huge for the Cougars because the Rattlers are on top of the Midwest League’s Western Division.
Kane County is tied for 3rd place in that division along with Quad Cities behind both the Rattlers and the Beloit Snappers. The Cougars and Timber Rattlers will meet again this weekend however the Cougars will be making the trip to Northeast Wisconsin for the 3 game series there which begins on Saturday. The Cougars have a huge chance to gain some major ground in the division. And that starts with yesterday’s victory. Of course the Cougars are also looking for a little help in the division as well. The Cougars are hoping that the last place Clinton Lumber Kings can pull off an upset against the Beloit Snappers.
The Cougars are also hoping Cedar Rapids can get a victory over the Quad Cities. Losses by Beloit and the Quad Cities, combined with a Cougars victory will push the Cougars 2 games closer to first place in the Western Division. It will also give them distance from the Quad City Bandits. Kellen Moen will start on the mound for the Cougars today. In seven starts this season he has only compiled a record of 1-1 with a 4.79 ERA. He’s been involved in a lot of no-decisions but on the plus side he’s only walked 10 batters all year and has struck out 35.
He’s only allowed only one home run all year, and has only given up 34 hits on the season. Win-loss record aside he’s one of the best pitchers on this Kane County staff. And the Cougars could definitely use a good start out of him today. On offense Kane County is led by Centerfielder Lane Adams who will be their cleanup hitter today. He’s batting .336 on the year with a slugging percentage of .482. He also has 2 home runs and 24 RBI’s on the young season. The Cougars will need everything they can get out of these two {as well as the rest of the team} if they are going to win today.
You can follow me during today’s game on Twitter: @GabeSalgado82 Hashtag: #Q101Sports
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