Kane County Pulls Away Late to Beat Rattlers

GENEVA, IL - The Kane County Cougars scored six times with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to blow open a close game with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Sunday night at Northwestern Medicine Field. The Cougars took a 2-0 lead and turned it into an 8-0 advantage on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Rattlers.
 
Wisconsin (22-28) loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning against Kane County starting pitcher Jeff Bain, but Pat McInerney's line drive was right at shortstop Jasrado Chisholm and the ball was caught for the final out of the inning.
 
Eduardo Diaz gave the Cougars (25-21) a 1-0 lead with a solo home run in the second inning. Tim Susnara followed with a double. Then, Joey Rose drove in Susnara with a single and Kane County was up 2-0.

The Rattlers missed out on opportunities in the fourth and fifth innings against Bain. In the fourth, McInerney and Zach Clark both singled with one out, but they were left stranded as Bain retired the next two batters. In the fifth, Joantgel Segovia doubled to start the inning, but the inning ended with Segovia standing on third base.

Bain left the game after giving up a two-out single to Clark in the sixth inning. He walked two, scattered six hits, and struck out four without allowing a run.

Devin Hairston walked to start the Wisconsin seventh inning against reliever Erbert Gonzalez, but Gonzalez struck out the next three batters to send the game to the stretch with Kane County still up 2-0.

Wisconsin reliever Wilfred Salaman made his Timber Rattlers debut by entering the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. He gave up hits to the first two batters he faced, but got out of the inning without allowing a run. Salaman was not as lucky in the seventh.

The first two Kane County batters after the stretch drew walks against Salaman. But, a strikeout and a force play at second gave Salaman a chance to escape the inning. They did not escape as Kane County strung together six straight two-out hits to score six runs and put the game out of reach.

Yoel Yanqui and Renae Martinez had back-to-back RBI singles to score the first two runs of the inning and drive Salaman from the game.

Yan Sanchez greeted reliever Jose Cuas with a two-run single. Diaz followed with an RBI double. Susnara was next and he singled to score Diaz and it was 8-0 in favor of Kane County.

Rose, who started the inning with a walk, singled for the final hit of the sequence before Cuas got the final out of the inning.

The Rattlers avoided the shutout with a three-run home run by Segovia in the top of the ninth inning. Wisconsin stranded ten runners on base and finished the game 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Wisconsin is 0-6 against Kane County this season.
 
The final game of the four-game series at Northwestern Medicine Field is Monday afternoon. Christian Taugner (0-4, 4.02) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Kane County has named Mack Lemieux (1-3, 5.13) as their starter. Game time on Memorial Day is 1:00pm.
 
The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM starting with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino Pregame Show at 12:40pm. The broadcast is also available on the Tune In and IHeart Radio apps. Subscribers to MiLB.tv can watch the game over the internet.