By WJBC Staff
GENEVA, Ill. – The Peoria Chiefs couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead and were walked off by the Kane County Cougars 3-2 Saturday night in a series opener. The loss drops the Chiefs to 33-34 in the second hand and 73-64 overall with two games left.
The game was scoreless into the fourth inning with Peoria’s Ronnie Williams and Kane County’s Max Duval matching zeroes. Eli Alvarez’s second double of the game with one out in the fourth gave the Chiefs an opening. With two down, Jose Godoy singled to left to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead and RJ Dennard doubled to the wall in right-center for a 2-0 advantage.
The Chiefs still led 2-0 into the sixth inning as Williams had allowed just one hit, an infield single in the fourth. But with two outs in the sixth, Fernery Ozuna hit his seventh home run of the season to cut the Chiefs lead to 2-1. In the seventh, Williams walked the leadoff man, Ramon Hernandez. A sacrifice bunt and a groundout moved Hernandez to third and he scored on a single by Stephen Dezzi. Nick Frey came out of the bullpen and retired Jeff Smith to end the inning with the game tied.
The Chiefs didn’t get a base runner in the eighth or ninth. Josh Wirsu took over on the mound for the Chiefs in the ninth and BJ Lopez singled with one out. Lopez moved to second on a groundout and the Chiefs intentionally walked Dezzi. Smith derw a walk to load the bases and Raymel Flores delivered the walk off single.
Williams allowed two runs on three hits and one walk over 6 2/3 innings while striking out four. Frey allowed one hit and struck out one in 1 1/3 shutout innings. Wirsu (1-2) allowed one run on two hits and two walks in 2/3 of an inning.
