Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs avoided the sweep with a 3-2 win over the Kane County Cougars in the series finale Wednesday night. The Chiefs are 5-2 in the second half and 44-33 overall as Peoria travels to Beloit for a four-game series starting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs avoided the sweep with a 3-2 win over the Kane County Cougars in the series finale Wednesday night. The Chiefs are 5-2 in the second half and 44-33 overall as Peoria travels to Beloit for a four-game series starting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
The Cougars scored in the first inning for the third game in a row, this time against Chiefs starter Johan Oviedo. Gabriel Maciel drew a leadoff walk and Jasrado Chisholm singled to put runners at the corners. Ernie De La Trinidad singled home Maciel for an early 1-0 lead.
Peoria loaded the bases without recording a hit in the bottom of the third and then took advantage on Cougars starter Mack Lemieux. Jose Martinez and Nick Plummer both walked with one out. Irving Lopez was hit in the head by a pitch for the second time in the game, to the load the bases and Elehuris Montero drove in Martinez to tie the game 1-1.
The long ball put the Chiefs in front for the first time of the series in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Bryce Denton slammed a solo homer over the left field wall for his fourth home run of the season as Peoria took a 2-1 lead.
The Chiefs tacked on another run in the bottom of the seventh against Cougars reliever Jake Winston. Lopez drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Montero singled to left to put runners at the corners with one out. Yariel Gonzalez scored Lopez on a sacrifice fly to left for a 3-1 Chiefs advantage.
Fabian Blanco entered to close the game in the top of the ninth. Yan Sanchez reached on an error by the third baseman Montero and Eudy Ramos singled to right as a fielding error by Matt Fiedler moved both runners into scoring position. Sanchez scored on a groundout by Luis Lara for the first out of the frame. With Ramos, the game's tying run as third, Blanco struck out Chisholm to seal the 3-2 win.
Oviedo took a no-decision throwing four innings allowing one run on three hits with five walks and five strikeouts. Levi MaVorhis (3-0) earned the win throwing two scoreless innings on two hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Bryan Dobzanski threw two scoreless innings on no hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Blanco picked up the save letting up one run on one hit with no walks and one strikeout.
Notes… Peoria has been outscored 69-32 in the first inning this season and 8-0 in the series…The Chiefs are 9-4 during the last game of a series at home…Ortega has a seven-game hit streak…Blanco leads the Chiefs with 24 appearances…Kane County outscored Peoria 26-5 in the series…Oviedo was ejected in the top of the fifth inning for pitching inside to Chisholm and manager Chris Swauger was ejected for the first two ejections of the season…Prior to that, Lopez was hit in the head twice by Cougars starter Lemieux with no ejections of Kane County…Dennis Ortega exited the game due to injury in the top of the eighth and Julio Rodriguez entered at catcher Peoria begins a four-game series at Beloit at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday…The Chiefs will start RH Alex Fagalde (2-2, 2.18) while Beloit's starter is TBA…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:45 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive and is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App.
