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

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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