9/10, R1G2 Burlington 4, Cougars 0

Well the season is over, the Cougars just didn't have what it takes to win a game in the playoffs. So now we have 210 more days till baseball returns to Kane County.

The Cougars would lose 4-0 to the Burlington Bees in the second game of the first round. The Cougars have not won a game in the playoffs since September 12th of 2006 at home against the West Michigan Whitecaps in the first game of the championship series. The Cougars are 0-7 since that game in the playoffs.

The pitching wasn't that bad today it is what kept the Cougars in the game tonight. Murphy Smith pitched well, he went six and two thirds innings, giving up six hits and two unearned runs. His main problem was hit deffense, which had four errors in the game. Compare that with the Cougars only having three hits, and you don't win many games.

The first two runs in the game came in the second inning for Burlington. Jason Taylor walked. Shawn Griffin then singled to third. Smith was then able to get Jose Bonilla to ground into a double play, Taylor went to third. Ryan Wood then reached on a throwing error by shortstop Tyler Ladendorf threw the ball low to first. Steve Parker should've been able to snare the ball but wasn't able to. On the play Taylor scored and Wood went to second. Fernando Garcia then blooped a single to left to score Wood.

The thrid run was in the eighth. Adrian Ortiz singled to left to lead things off. David Wood then singeld to left. Taylor singled up the middle to load the bases with nobody out. Cougar reliever Trey Barham then struck out Griffin. Steve Scarsone then made a pitching change to bring in Jose Guzman. Bonilla grounded one to third. Mike Spina bobbled it for an error. Oritz would score on the play. Ryan Wood grounded one more to third, and Spina threw home to get David Wood out.

In the ninth with one out, Patrick Norris singled off the glove of Parker, then stole second. Ortiz singled to right center to score Norris. Ortiz would be caught stealing. David Wood and Taylor both singled to short, the second one went off of Ladendorf's glove. Griffin then flew to right to end the inning.

The Cougars did have to get out of some innings. In the third inning two one out hits, would be erased by a double play. In the sixth inning with one out, and error and a single to no mans land between the left and center fielder's. Smith would then be able to get a pop out and a fielder's choice.

The Cougars had some chances, but just really were out played by the Bees. In the third inning they would load the bases with two outs. Dusty Napoleon walked. Connor Crumbless singled and Leonardo Gil walked. Steve Parker then flew out to center to strand the runners. In each of the next three innings they would get a runner on and strand him.


Paul Smyth pitched the ninth and gave up the first run in his career.



Next Year, 4/8/10 at Wisconsin is only 210 more days away.



Thank you all for reading my stories throughout the year, and I wish you all a good offseason. I will have articles with Cougar history on scout.com sometimes throughout the offseason. The website will have all stats updated hopefully before the first snowfall. Plus all of the boxscores for this year hopefully will be online by Thankgiving. After that I will be putting together a complete record book.

I would especially like to thank the following people in no particular order.
Pam Rasmussen, Bob Yahr, Dale and LuAnn Klein, Jeff Hem, Kathy and Terry Baumann, Tom Stuart, Dan McQuade, Melissa Lockard, If I have forgotten anyone Im sorry, thank you