By WJBC Staff
GENEVA – The Peoria Chiefs did not score until the ninth inning and former Chiefs infielder Ildemaro Vargas scored three runs as the Kane County Cougars prevailed 4-1 Friday night. The Chiefs three-game win streak ends as they fall to 33-34 with two games left in the first half.
With the game scoreless into the third, former Chiefs infielder Ildemaro Vargas started a two-out rally for the Cougars with a double off the wall in left. All-Star Cody Regis tripled over a diving Blake Drake in center field and later scored on a single by Oscar Hernandez as the hosts took a 2-0 lead on Daniel Poncedeleon.
Vargas was involved in the Cougars run-scoring fifth inning as well as he lined a single off the arm of Poncedeleon and moved to second on a wild throw to first. Poncedeleon stayed in the game and Vargas moved to third on a flyout to left before scoring on a single by Hernandez for a 3-0 Cougars lead.
Kane County added on in the seventh inning and again Vargas was involved with a leadoff single. Vargas moved to third on a pair of groundouts and scored on a single by Michael Perez. With the Chiefs down 4-0, Blake McKnight took over for Poncedeleon and got out of the seventh inning.
Peoria put a runner at third base in the first inning as Andrew Sohn reached on an error with one out and with two down he moved to third on an errant pickoff throw by Touki Toussaint. Danny Diekroeger grounded out to second and the Chiefs didn’t get another runner past second until the ninth. Peoria left a runner at second in the fourth and had first and second with two outs in the seventh but Steve Bean struck out looking.
The Chiefs avoided the shutout in the ninth thanks to a Cougars error with two outs. After the error, Nick Thompson doubled to the wall in center plating Alex DeLeon and cutting the deficit to 4-1. Kane County brought in reliever Steve Hathaway and he struck out Bean looking to end the game.
Poncedeleon (6-1) took his first loss of the season allowing four runs, three earned, on nine hits over 6 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five. McKnight allowed two singles and struck out one over 1 1/3 shutout innings.
