by Dominic Stearn
Geneva, Ill — In another tight contest, the Lake Country DockHounds lost on Memorial Day to the Kane County Cougars, 3-1.
Nick Herold was excellent again in his third start, but took the loss. He navigated early jams in a six-inning effort while allowing just two earned runs and striking out seven batters. His fantastic pitching kept the game scoreless through three innings.
Lake Country loaded the bases with one away in the top of the fourth inning with Aaron Simmons at the plate. He smoked a line drive to left, but right at Kane County left fielder Cornelius Randolph. Harrison Smith then struck the ball well out to center, but also for a fly out, and the DockHounds’ best scoring opportunity was gone.
In the bottom half, the Cougars took a two run lead and never let it go. Not without a fight from the Hounds, though.
With two away in the fifth inning, Jaxx Groshans and Demetrius Sims, who made his return to the lineup after seven games, both reached to bring up Marcus Chiu. Kane County starter Tyler Beardsley spiked a 2-2 pitch, but his catcher Daniel Wasinger picked it out of the dirt. Groshans, reading the down angle, took an aggressive secondary, and Wasinger caught Groshans in a run down. Miraculously, Groshans avoided the tag, at least according to umpire Lindy Hall, and made it safely back to second. After a foul ball, Chiu singled to right and brought home Groshans to cut within a run.
Pat DeMarco then flew out to end the inning, and a Cougars run in the sixth inning was ultimately too much to come back from. Austin Faith was the only bullpen arm used, pitching the final two innings of the contest while allowing just one baserunner to keep the bullpen fresh.
Tuesday will be an off day for the DockHounds before a double header on Wednesday against the Cougars. First pitch of game one is at 4:00, with the second game following. Both contests will be seven innings.
