By Michael Barthelemy
ROSEMONT, Ill. – 400 minutes later and the Chicago Dogs and Kane County Cougars split an Independence Day doubleheader by the scores, 3-1 Cougars and 5-2 Dogs.
Pitching prevailed for the winning sides all evening. In the first game, Cougars starter Jack Fox dominated for nine strikeouts and one run in five innings. Jeff Kinley, typically a late inning reliever, threw a gem of a start with a five innings of one hit ball in the second leg.
The Cougars boast a powerful lineup and it showed up from the jump in game one. With a runner on, Jimmy Kerrigan sent a ball deep and over the left field wall to put Kane County up 2-0. It was his 17th home run of the season, good for fourth in the Association.
Kullman settled into his own to strike out three of the next four hitters, but Kane County pitcher Jack Fox was in his bag. The righty pitched five innings and allowed one run, with nine strikeouts. Chicago was unable to gain much offensive momentum against the Cougars’ ace.
The lone run came from a Grant Kay chopped ground ball that made it through the left side of the infield and scored K.C. Hobson in the fourth. That score was squeezed in moments before a torrential downpour came over Impact Field to cause a hour-long delay. The rain killed any sort of offensive momentum the Dogs had and kept the score at 2-1.
Kullman came out for a fifth inning, but Kane County jumped on him following the long wait for three singles in four at-bats to score a third run.
Joe Cavallaro came in relief of Kullman and pitched 2.2 clean innings, but Chicago could not garner much offensive steam. The 3-1 scoreline stayed and the Dogs dropped game one.
Game two came about and appeared to be going in the same direction. Cornelius Randolph smacked a solo shot in the first inning to bring the Dogs up 1-0. Kinley walked Kerrigan next, but got out of the inning soon there after.
From then on, it was all Chicago. Stevie Wilkerson went to the opposite field for a second inning home run, Kay hit a line drive to the gap for a double and Trent Bauer drove him in to make the game 2-1. Danny Mars got in on the fun in the fourth when he hit a solo home run to left field to make it 3-1, Dogs.
After the early blip, Kinley began to dominate. The Dogs have typically trotted out bullpen arms for two to three innings when they start, but Kinley went five innings. The lefty slinger did not allow a baserunner through his final four innings and tallied seven strikeouts in his debut Dogs start.
The Cougars rallied back in the sixth to make it a 3-2 game with runners on second and third and only one out. Paul Schwendel stared down the middle of the order for Kane County and got Cornelius Randolph to strike out through a strong mix of the heater and finesse of his curveball. Kerrigan walked to load the bases, but up came Dylan Busby, whose season average to that point sat at .340. On three pitches, Schwendel threw three strikes and on the final toss Busby lifted a ball deep to center field. Charlie Tilson tracked the ball quickly and secured the out to end the jam and secure the lead.
After a brief fireworks delay, Chicago tacked on two insurance runs by a Bauer single and Tilson double and that brought the eventual win. The Cougars and Dogs made it through two game stoppages and 14 innings of baseball to come away with the split. They earn an off-day tomorrow but come back for leg three of the four game series on Wednesday.