Cougars blanked by Milwaukee

The Kane County Cougars were unable to get the bats going, as the Milwaukee Milkmen claimed a 3-0 shutout victory Tuesday at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

Milwaukee (37-38) pitchers Sebastian Rodriguez (8-4), Mark Simon, and Jordan Johnson combined to shut out the Cougars (43-33), holding Kane County to just four hits. Rodriguez earned the win with seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts against just one walk. In the eighth and ninth Simon and Johnson combined for six straight outs to end the ballgame.

The Cougars’ Greg Mahle (8-1) worked through the first five innings of the ballgame without allowing a hit. With two outs in the top of the sixth, Chase Estep broke up the no-hit bid with a single through the right side. One batter later, Willie Escala belted a two-run homer over the left-center field wall to put Milwaukee ahead 2-0.

One inning later, the Milkmen struck via the long ball once again. Jose Sermo led off the seventh inning with a solo homer to push Milwaukee’s edge to three runs. Though he took his first loss of the season, Mahle earned his fifth quality start. The left-hander allowed three runs on three hits with seven strikeouts against two walks over seven innings of work.

After Mahle departed, Michael Brewer tossed two scoreless frames with four strikeouts. However, the Cougars couldn’t get anything going offensively.