Down on the Farm: Iowa Cubs route Round Rock, 10-3

Second game to go final after the Iowa Cubs was between the Kane County Cougars and the Beloit Snappers. The Cougars were able to jump in front of Beloit early on by the score of 3-0 but allowed them to get within a run during the top of the sixth inning.

Both Yasiel Balaguert and David Bote picked up RBI doubles during the bottom of the fourth inning which made it 2-0.  Ben Carhart singled on a fly ball to right field during the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-0 Cougars. It was a 3-2 ball game until the bottom of the eighth inning after the Cougars were handed a run on a walk by Snappers pitcher Lee Sosa. Sosa also allowed the Cougars to extend their lead to 5-2 on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Penalver. 

Kane County had a bit of trouble closing out the game during the top of the ninth inning with Jose Arias in the game looking to shut things down. Arias gave up two earned runs during the top of the inning to B.J. Boyd and B.A. Vollmuth before he was pulled and replaced by Zack Godley.

Godley was able to come in and get the final out of the ball game.

Right-handed starter Paul Blackburn had himself another great outing tonight for the Cougars as he was able to work through five and one-third innings. Blackburn was tagged with five hits, one earned run which came off a home run by B.A. Vollmuth during the top of the sixth inning.

Winning pitcher tonight was Paul Blackburn (2-0, 3.10 ERA), loss was handed to Kyle Finnegan (1-1, 2.49 ERA) and Zack Godley was awarded the save (3).

Final Score: Cougars 5, Snappers 4.

Kane County is now 12-6 early on.