Cougars crush Fish

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This article was published 14/06/2022 (1241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes could’ve used some help from Mother Nature Tuesday night to wash away a lopsided defeat against the Kane County Cougars at Shaw Park.

Winnipeg was on the wrong end of a 10-3 beating, snapping a four-game winning streak and falling to 15-14 this season.

“It’s just one of those games where everything didn’t go our way,” said Goldeyes hitting coach Amos Ramon. “We hit the ball hard, but we just didn’t get any hits and a lot of their hits were just little ones that fell in for them. I’m not too worried about it.”

Kane County centre fielder Jimmy Kerrigan went yard in the top of the second inning to open the scoring and gave the visitors an early lead. The Cougars added another run following a miscommunication at the plate, but Winnipeg’s starting pitcher Freisis Adames settled in and retired the next three batters.

The Fish were hungry to reclaim the lead and went to work in the bottom of the third inning.

Goldeyes catcher Deon Stafford Jr. cranked a double off the right field wall, kickstarting Winnipeg’s offence in the bottom of the frame. Raul Navarro followed things up with a single, putting runners on the corners for third baseman Ian Sagdal to bring them home with a two-run double.

Winnipeg’s bats stayed active in the inning and outfielder Max Murphy drove home his 20th run of the season with a double deep into right field making it 3-2 Fish. But it’d prove to be a rare flash of brightness in a rather forgettable contest.

“We’ve been playing really well lately,” said Ramon. “You run into one of these games… we haven’t been able to get on the field the last couple of days because of the weather and it’s just how things have been.”

“It’s just one of those games, but I like how we battled,” he added.

Kane County negated Winnipeg’s third-inning thumping, driving in three runs of their own and took a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning.

Cougars third baseman Ernie De La Trinidad opened the frame with a triple, allowing teammate Sherman Johnson to tie the game with an RBI single on the next at-bat. Adames got a mound visit from Goldeyes skipper Rick Forney, giving up two more runs before the end of the inning.

Kerrigan made the black clouds hanging over Shaw Park a little darker, smashing his second home run of the night over the fence, giving Kane County a 9-3 lead in the top of the sixth inning.

“That home run in the sixth inning… it was hard to come back from it,” said Ramon. “I thought we were in the game the whole time, I thought we did everything well, but it just didn’t go our way tonight.”

However, Ramon said gameplanning for Kerrigan isn’t something that will be a huge focus for going forward.

“He’s a good hitter, don’t get me wrong… you kind of just play it by ear.”

The Goldeyes’ scoring punch was nowhere to be found after their productive third inning, going scoreless in the following six frames. Second baseman Kevin Lachance tried to jumpstart a run with an inning-opening single in the seventh, but was left stranded as Kane County made easy work of the next three batters.

Winnipeg’s chance to muster a comeback fell short, leaving runners on base in the eighth inning and going three up and three down in the bottom of the ninth. It would’ve been a tall order to overcome a large lead late in the contest, especially on a night where the team’s defence didn’t do much to keep its offence in the game.

“It’s just baseball, it’s just how the game goes,” said Ramon. “We’ll be fine, it’s a 100-game schedule… don’t dwell to much on each game when it’s in the past.”

Life moves fast in the American Association and the Goldeyes will have another crack at Kane County when the three-game series wraps up Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. They’ll have the day off Thursday before welcoming the Lincoln Saltdogs to the ballpark Friday for a three-game series.

“Tomrrow’s another day, that’s baseball,” said Ramon.

Gavin.Axelrod@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: Gavin77axe