Cougars 2011 Season Comes to an End

Apologies for not keeping up with the whirlwind finish of the Kane County Cougars.

We last reported the against the Burlington Bees. The Cougars went on to beat the Bees in a make-or-break game to advance to the best-of-three Western Division championship round versus Quad City.

The Cougars lost the first game in the series, then ... well, there's a reason Quad City is called the Bandits. The full game story is below.

Although the season ended on Sept. 11, it was a tremendous first year as an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The on-field action featured some of the top prospects in the Royals organization, such as Cheslor Cuthbert. The team, led by first-year manager , advanced to the Division Championship Series for the seventh time in franchise history.

This season, the Kane County Cougars welcomed more than 400,000 fans for the 18th straight time. In addition to great food, fireworks and fun, special theme nights at the ballpark celebrated Harry Potter, Country Music and Star Wars, to name a few. The Veeck Family "Night of 100 Promotions" on Aug. 11 received special recognition from Minor League Baseball as one of the best theme nights in 2011.

We're looking forward already to 2012.

Here's the final game story, courtesy of the Kane County Cougars:

Cougars Drop Heartbreaker to End '11

DAVENPORT, IA—The Kane County Cougars' 2011 season ended on Sunday afternoon in heartbreaking fashion. The Cougars let a 5-0 lead slip away and lost 6-5 against the Quad Cities River Bandits at Modern Woodmen Park.

The game ended on a three-run homer from Bandits outfielder Nick Longmire, and the Cougars were eliminated from the Western Division Championship Series, 2 games to 0. They were two outs away from forcing a Game 3 on Monday when the contest ended.

The Cougars never trailed before the ninth inning. Kevin David belted a homer off Zach Russell in the second inning, and Jake Kuebler drilled a two-run triple in the fifth to make it 3-0. Then Kuebler scored on sacrifice fly by Yowill Espinal, and Angel Franco cracked a solo homer in the top of the eighth to make it 5-0.

Starter Jason Mitchell turned in one of the best pitching performances by a Cougar all season. He had a three-hit shutout through seven innings with nine strikeouts and gave up two runs—one earned—in the bottom of the eighth before leaving. In total, Mitchell gave up the two runs on four hits and walked none in eight frames but had to take a no-decision. 

Chase Boruff began the bottom of the ninth with a walk to Ronny Gil, who later took second on a wild pitch and third on defensive indifference. Jonathan Rodriguez singled home Gil, and the Cougars summoned Antonio Cruz, who gave up a single to Cody Stanley and the game-ending homer to Longmire for the 6-5 final.    

With the 2011 season over, the Cougars look toward April 2012 for their 22nd year of baseball.  

Information for this article was provided by the Kane County Cougars.