Down on the Farm: Cougars, Smokies, Cubs pick up wins Tuesday

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Feb 19, 2014; Mesa, AZ, USA; Chicago Cubs relief pitcher

Zac Rosscup

(59) throws during a workout at Cubs Park. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

What’s going on Chicago Cubs fans? I hope everybody is enjoying the Crosstown Classic, even though our beloved Cubbies have dropped the first two games of the series.

Now there was plenty of baseball played yesterday within the Cubs organization besides the guys in the Majors. The Kane County Cougars were looking to stay red hot and improve to 23-9, while the Iowa Cubs and the Tennessee Smokies are hoping to keep their heads above water. The Daytona Cubs have struggled all season and currently sit with the worst record among the group with only 10 wins.

But let’s get started with last night’s action with the Triple-A affiliate, Iowa Cubs.

Iowa was coming off a huge 12-3 victory over the New Orleans Zephyrs and entered Tuesday’s game hoping to repeat Monday night’s performance.

The Cubs trailed the Zephyrs 2-0 until the second inning, when Josh Vitters would launch his first of two home runs in the game to tie it up at two apiece. Vitters would come up to the plate during the top of the fourth and pick up another two-run shot to make it 4-2. He has now homered three times in the last two games.

Starting pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada turned in another decent outing last night against New Orleans. Wada finished with six innings of work and was charged with three earned runs while striking out just one. Right-handed reliever Carlos Pimentel would enter the game and end up blowing the save after pitching three innings.

Facing Pimentel, former Chicago Cubs outfielder Brian Bogusevic tied the game on an RBI sacrifice fly during the bottom of the seventh inning. The game later headed to extras, where Iowa scored the go-ahead run when a wild pitch allowed a run to score with shortstop Javier Baez at the dish.

Last night, the winning pitcher was Zac Rosscup (2-0, 3.00 ERA) while the loss was handed to Chaz Roe (1-0, 4.03 ERA) and the save was picked up by Marcos Mateo (2).

Final Score: Cubs 5, Zephyrs 4.

Iowa Cubs improve to 17-13.

Daytona is coming off another loss, dropping Monday’s contest to the Flying Tigers by the score of 8-6.

Lakeland would pick up a huge five-run lead during the top of the second inning and the rest was taken care of by their pitching staff.

Starting pitcher Tayler Scott continued to struggle on the mound for the Cubs as he was only able to get through 4 2/3 innings tonight. Scott was tagged with all five earned runs as he walked five and struck out three.

The only run of the night for the Cubs came during the bottom of the seventh inning on a sac fly by Wilson Contreras. You could say that the top player of last night’s game had to be reliever Starling Peralta. He entered the game with a five-run deficit and didn’t allow the Flying Tigers to plate another run. He only allowed two hits while walking one and striking out six before he was replaced by Austin Reed.

Reed did not give up a hit and struck out one in one inning of work.

Winning pitcher tonight was Josh Turley (3-0, 1.91 ERA) losing pitcher is Tayler Sott (2-3, 4.40 ERA) while the save was awarded to Guido Knudson (4).

Final Score: Flying Tigers 5, Cubs 1.

Daytona Cubs fall to 10-19.

Next up we have the Tennessee Smokies taking on the Birmingham Barons yet again. Tennessee was able to put up a huge eight spot during Monday’s game that helped them beat the Barons by a score of 11-7.

The game would be deadlocked at zero until the Barons were able to pick up a 1-0 lead during the top of the fourth inning. Tennessee would be unable to respond until the bottom of the sixth when they tied the game at one a piece.

Starting pitcher Matt Loosen worked through five solid innings against Birmingham. Loosen was charged with the earned run that was given up during the fourth inning but was able to strikeout seven Barons hitters. Anthony Giansanti launched a solo home run during the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Smokies a 2-1 lead. Later on, during the same inning, Wes Darvill would extend the lead to 3-1 on a sacrifice fly.

Jae-Hoon Ha would plate the final run of the game on a single during the bottom of the eighth to make it 4-1.

Winning pitcher tonight was Ryan Searle (3-1, 6.63 ERA) while the loss was handed to Chris Beck (2-5, 4.93 ERA) and the save being awarded to Hunter Cervenka (1).

Final Score: Smokies 4, Barons 1.

Tennessee Smokies improve to 18-14.

Last but not least, we have the red-hot Kane County Cougars. Kane County continued their winning ways Monday evening as they were able to pick up an 8-4 win against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

The Cougars and Timber Rattlers would go back and forth through the first four innings of the ballgame. The game would be tied at two apiece until the Cougars began to pour it on during the final couple frames of Tuesday’s contest.

Starting pitcher Daury Torrez worked through six innings today, allowing four hits and two earned runs while walking two and striking out only one batter. Torrez would be pulled from the game and replaced by Jose Arias who would put up zeroes against Timber Rattlers hitters for two innings.

Arias would leave the game with a comfortable lead. The Cougars were able to pick up some insurance runs during the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Will Remillard and Jordan Hankins would make it a 4-2 ball game during the bottom of the sixth inning. Remillard would pick up another three RBIs during the seventh inning on a bases-clearing double with the bases loaded to make it 7-2. He would finish the night 3-for-3.

Ben Carhart would reach on a fielding error by the Timber Rattlers during the bottom of the eighth which added an insurance run to make it 8-2.

Winning pitcher tonight was Duary Torrez (4-1, 3.38 ERA) with the loss being handed to Preston Gainey (1-2, 2.59 ERA).

Final Score: Cougars 8, Timber Rattlers 2.

Kane County Cougars improve to 23-9 on the season.

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