Cougars Win RBI
Tournament at Benton
The Cougars traveled to Benton on Saturday to participate in the annual Ranger Baseball Invitational Tournament
and walked away with a pair of wins to claim the championship trophy.
In game one, Tanner Bushue pitched seven strong innings and clouted a grand slam home run in the 5-2 victory
over Eldorado.
He allowed only three hits, but one of those was two-run homer in the sixth after a two-out fielding miscue
by the Cougar defense. But that was his only downfall as he struckout ten Eagle hitters on the game and gave up only two walks.
Offensively, the Cougars struggled to get anything going against the Eagles' soft-throwing junkballer until
the fourth.
Clinging to a slim 1-0 lead, Aaron Robb led off the inning with a single and Wade Crain reached base with
a one-out walk. After a strikeout, Jayme Michel was then hit by a pitch to load the bases before Bushue connected on
his long blast over the right-centerfield fence.
In game two, Nick Simmons went the distance to run his record to 3-0 and Bushue came up with another big home
run to give the Cougars a late-inning lead in a 5-4 victory over Benton.
Although the Rangers jumped out to an early lead by scoring three runs in their first two at-bats, Simmons
settled in allowing just a single run the rest of the way.
For the game, he scattered seven hits to go along with five strikeouts and one walk.
Just like game one, the Cougar offense sputtered, but did manage to score single tallies in the first and
third innings.
Trailing 4-2 in the fifth, Simmons got the Cougars within one when he popped a solo homer to left. Then in
the sixth, Bushue struck again.
After Michel singled with one out, Bushue launched a long line drive that cleared the fence in center
to give the Cougars the lead and Simmons set down the side in order in the seventh to close things out.
The Cougars are back in action on Monday when the host the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes at 4:30 PM.
