Oconomowoc, Wis. – The Lake Country Flying Monkeys returned to Wisconsin Brewing Company Park on Tuesday night and held onto a 6-5 victory despite a late comeback attempt from the Kane County Cougars.
After Luke Hansel allowed two runs, one of which unearned, to score in the top of the first inning, Daunte Stuart singled and Ryan Hernandez clubbed his 13th home run of the season to tie the contest up in the bottom half.
Hansel settled in, tossing four more scoreless frames before the Cougars’ offense scored again.
Freddy Rojas Jr. smacked his first home run of the year with Lake Country in the second inning to put the team in front. Stuart followed suit an inning later with another solo shot, the sixth time he’s left the yard this season.
Brian Rey led off the fourth inning with a single and scored on an RBI base hit from Derek Maiben to extend the Lake Country lead to three runs. Coming off the bench, Aaron Hill lasered a ball to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning to plate a sixth Lake Country run.
Stuart led the offense, aboard safely all four times to support a three-run night while also swiping two more bases. Two base hits and two walks were a bounce-back performance after a hitless game on Monday.
Eight of the ten Flying Monkeys used in the game reached base safely, including eight hits and six walks.
“[Momentum] is all about the daily process,” said Stuart. “How can we keep this rolling and making adjustments each day? [Hitting coach Dave] Pano has continued to help me a ton.”
In the sixth inning, the Cougars scratched one more run off of Hansel, but the all-star righty limited the damage in the frame. An inning later, Kane County brought home a fourth run but couldn’t add any more to a rally. He ended his outing with five strikeouts through seven innings while Kane County mustered the four runs (three earned) off of six hits and two walks off of him.
Robert Gsellman struck out the side in the ninth, securing his sixth save of the year in the process.
Lake Country (44-30) heads to a rubber match in game three of four against Kane County on Wednesday night. RHP Gabriel Aguilera takes the mound for the DockHounds at 6:35 p.m.
