Down on the Farm: Jacob Rogers’ home run lifts Cougars over Clinton

Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The Kane County Cougars received a clutch at-bat by first baseman Jacob Rogers during the sixth inning against the Clinton LumberKings (Seattle Mariners),  while Kris Bryant, Gioskar Amaya and Wilson Contreras were responsible for the Tennessee Smokies and Daytona Cubs run support but were unable to help lead their teams to victory. The Iowa Cubs and the Memphis Redbirds (St. Louis) had a double-header scheduled for today but were unable to start Game 1 of 2 until nearly four hours later.

Final: Kane County Cougars 4, Lumberkings 1 (Mariners)

Kane County trailed this game until the sixth inning when Rogers took LumberKings pitcher Aaron Brooks deep to right field to give his team a 3-1 lead. The three run shot provided by Rogers would be his fifth home run of the season, a much needed at-bat by the 24 year old infielder with his team trailing. Clinton pitcher Brooks made it through only one inning after taking over for Lars Huijer, who was pulled after 5 1/3.

Cougars recorded 10 hits on the night, Rogers, Jordan Hankins and Jacob Hannemann each recorded two hits on the night.

Both pitchers surrendered two earned runs on the night before Kane County added an insurance run during the top of the seventh inning. Daury Torrez (5-3, 3.36 ERA) allowed Clinton to score one run off five hits, walked one batter but managed to strikeout three. James Pugliese worked three solid scoreless innings before handing the ball over to Tyler Bremer during the ninth inning. Both Pugliese and Bremer combined for two hits and eight strikeouts to close out the game.

Final: Stars (Brewers) 5, Smokies 1

Third base prospect Kris Bryan is having himself a monster season with the Smokies as he smoked a solo home run, number 17 of the season, off Tommy Toledo during the top of the ninth inning to record his teams first run of the ball game.

Tennessee’s starting pitcher Julio Rodriguez (1-1, 3.38 ERA) struggled to find the strike zone tonight, walking six batters during his brief outing. All seemed well for Rodriguez until he allowed a run to score on a wild pitch during the bottom of the fifth inning. Huntsville would add another run to make it 2-0 on a sacrifice bunt by Andy Moye. The first home run of the ball game was a solo shot to right field off Rodriguez by Nick Ramirez, his 10th of the season which made it 3-0 Stars.

Rodriguez was pulled after 5 1/3 after allowing four runs (three earned) off three hits. Tony Zych and Austin Kirk finished the rest of the ball game, combining for two hits, one earned run (Kirk) and one strikeout.

Tennessee put together only four hits (Bryant, Rubi Silva, Anthony Giansanti, Dustin Geiger) while Huntsville strung together five.

Final: Palm Beach (Cardinals) 7, Cubs 2

Just like the Tennessee Smokies, the Daytona Cubs received very little run support from their lineup. Palm Beach opened up the ball game with a four run first inning which featured two doubles and a triple off Zastryzny. Ildemaro Vargas, Alex Mejia would double while Nick Martini would triple to center fielder Albert Almora.

Rob Zastryzny‘s (1-4, 7.57 ERA) outing would come to an end after just 3 2/3 of work. His last pitch was sent over the center field wall by Luke Voit which made it a 5-0 ballgame, resulting in him turning things over to the bullpen for the remainder of the night. His nightmarish season continues after allowing seven hits (one home run), five earned runs but somehow managed to strikeout five.

The only run support Zastryzny and the bullpen would receive came from both Gioskar Amaya and WIllson Contreras. Amaya singled during the bottom of the third which made it 5-1, Contreras (designated hitter) made it 7-2 on a single to center during the bottom of the seventh.

Daytona ended the ballgame with eight hits, both Contreras (one RBI) and Marco Hernandez finished 2-4 tonight – Amaya finished 1-4 with an RBI and a strikeout.

Final: Iowa 6, Redbirds (Cardinals) 4

A night after the Iowa Cubs were almost not hit by the Memphis Redbirds, both teams battled back and forth until the game was called after the seventh inning.

Both teams were scheduled for a double-header but were unable to begin on time with the original first pitch scheduled for 5:05 C.T. Arismendy Alcantara, the man who broke up last nights no-hitter, came through for his club with a clutch at-bat yet again. Alcantara launched his seventh home run of the season off pitcher Heath Wyatt to make it 6-4 in favor of the Iowa Cubs. It was his second home run of the ball game, the first coming during the top of the third inning which tied the game up at two a piece.

Ryan Kalish started things off with a solo home run to right field during the top of the first inning to make it 1-0. Memphis would fight back during the bottom half of the frame on two back-to-back doubles by Scott Moore and Stephen Piscotty to take the 2-1 lead. Moore later cut Iowa’s lead to just one after Christian Villanueva gave his team the 5-2 lead, on a two run shot to right field off Kyle Hendricks.

Despite picking up the win, Kyle Hendricks (6-3, 3.54 ERA) was awarded with the win during the first game of the two game double-header. Kendricks was tagged with 10 hits, four earned runs with two walks and three strikeouts before turning things over to Yoanner Negrin.

Negrin would record his third hold of the season after working a scoreless/hit-less inning, allowing Blake Parker to pick up his ninth save of the season.

Game 2 of the double-header between the Iowa Cubs and Memphis Redbirds would later be postponed.