Chiefs Fall to Cougars Saturday

Geneva, IL - The Peoria Chiefs had won six straight games away from Dozer Park over the last 15 days but that streak ended with a 10-2 loss to the Kane County Cougars Saturday night in Geneva. Despite the loss the Chiefs stay tied for first place in the West with a 6-4 second half record and an overall mark of 36-43.

     The Chiefs jumped out to a 1-0 lead against lefty Mack Lemieux when Brian O'Keefe drilled a one-out home run in the second. The homer was his seventh of the season and first off a lefty.
    The Chiefs didn't lead long though as the first two Cougars in the bottom of the inning singled off Ian Oxnevad. Jose Martinez misplayed a tailor-made double play ball and only got one out as the Cougars put runners on the corners. The next grounder should have ended the inning but instead scored a run as Mark Karaviotis came home with Payton De La Garza thrown out at first. Adam Walton singled to bring home Ramon Hernandez and the Cougars led 2-1.
    Kane County extended the lead in the third with two more runs. A single, walk and single loaded the bases with one out. Hernandez singled home two runs before a pop up and an out on the base paths ended the inning with the Chiefs down 4-1.
     The Chiefs cut the lead back to two in the fourth. Ryan McCarvel led off with a double and scored two batters later on a groundout by Juan Yepez. However De La Garza homered to start the bottom of the inning and Kane County led 5-2. They pushed the game out of reach in the fifth with three singles and two runs as Karaviotis and De La Garza delivered RBI hits for a 7-2 lead.
     Newcomer Keaton Siomkin took over on the mound for the Chiefs in the sixth. In the seventh the Cougars scored three more runs as Karaviotis, Luis Silverio and BJ Lopez drove in runs. The last run scored after Siomkin had been replaced by Bryan Dobzanski and Karaviotis added his fifth hit of the game in the Cougars final at-bat.
     Oxnevad (2-8) took the loss as he allowed seven runs on 12 hits over five innings while walking one and striking out one. Siomkin allowed three runs on four hits over 1 2/3 innings in his Chiefs debut with one walk and two strikeouts. Dobzanksi allowed two hits over a 1 1/3 shutout innings
Notes…The Chiefs won six straight road games for the seventh time in franchise history and the first since a seven-game road win streak July 10-20, 2015…The franchise record for consecutive road wins is nine set in 2006…Dylan Carlson hit in the two slot for the first time since April 11…He batted second in each of the first four Chiefs games but has hit exclusively in the 6-9 range since April 12…O'Keefe is now ninth on the Chiefs career home-run list with 25 as he moved out of a three-way tie for 10^th with Ryan Harvey and Alex Cabrera…He had 107 career RBI and needs eight more to move into the Chiefs top 10…The Chiefs have allowed 10 or more runs in seven games this season, all on the road and twice in Kane County…Oxnevad had won a career-high two straight starts including a June 15 victory at Kane County…He allowed a new career high in hits (12) and runs (7)…The Chiefs allowed a season-high 18 hits, one more than Cedar Rapids had May 17…The season series is tied 4-4…The series continues Sunday at 6:30 p.m. as the Chiefs start RH Jordan Hicks (7-2, 3.73) against Cougars (8-2, 2.57)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:15 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive which also has downloads for a free app on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android…The broadcast is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App.