American Association Insider: Miles Wolff Cup Game Five

 In a series that delivered in every possible way, the Kane County Cougars outlasted the Sioux Falls Canaries 7-5 in ten innings to win the Miles Wolff Cup for the second year in a row.

It was the Canaries that got on the board first in the second inning. Joe Vos who was a force in the last three games, singled and later scored on a Mike Hart single. 

It was a similar script two innings later as Hart connected for another RBI single to score Vos who had reached on a fielder's choice. 

Matt Solter was cruising for the Canaries. But the Cougars got on board in the sixth. Josh Allen and Marcus Chiu both singled with Todd Lott driving home Allen with the sacrifice fly.

The Canaries had chances to extend the lead but left nine runners on base in the first five innings. 

In the sixth the Canaries went to the bullpen and Kane County tied the game with Nick Delasandro driving in Claudio Finol. Finol gave the Cougars their first lead of the night in the following inning with an RBI single.

But much like the entire series, the teams traded punches with Scott Combs getting his third of the night to drive in Josh Rehwaldt who reached on an error and stole second base.

This set up extra innings and the Cougars wasted no time against Ryan Zimmerman the winner in Game Three. Marcus Chiu doubled, then Todd Lott reached when Vos dropped a fly ball. The Canaries chose to intentionally walk Armond Upshaw to load the bases. Let me take you back to 2004 when Marc Mirizzi won a title for St. Paul and manager George Tsamis with a grand slam. Well, Finol did his reenactment driving a grand slam over the wall in left to give Kane County a 7-3 lead.

The Canaries weren't done though. The Cougars brought in ace starter Konnor Ash. Three consecutive hits drove in a run and had the tying run on base. But Scott Combs grounded into a double play to end the game, just like in 2019 when Allen was playing second base for the Saints. 

Finol garnered series MVP honors and the Cougars in spite of a 49-51 regular season record became the third team to win back to back Miles Wolff Cups and the first since Winnipeg in 2016-17.


Courtesy of Kane County Cougars- Facebook


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Association SUNDAY Insider: The All Star Edition

Image
 We've got through May, cruised through June and are now into July, so of course that means All Star Game picks. The American Association version of the Mid Summer Classic will be in Fargo two weeks from Monday. A skills competition (haven't seen one of those in a long time) and the Home Run Derby will be on Monday July 21, with the All Star Game on Tuesday night. Players stats were as of July 4th. Click here for your All Star Game Tickets West Division Catcher: Juan Fernandez, Fargo-Moorhead. Fernandez after an injury plagued 2024, has stayed healthy and has been a mainstay of the RedHawks lineup thus far in 2025. Fernandez has 23 RBI and is batting .313 First Base: Matthew Warkentin, Winnipeg. Warkentin has come on strong in the last few weeks to become part of the conversation. I could see the votes putting Josh Rehwaldt at first base but he has been in the outfield more times than not lately. Warkentin going into Friday has nine home runs and 32 runs batted in with a .292 a...
Read more

American Associaition Insider: August 23, 2025 plus Power Rankings.

Image
All six games on the penultimate Saturday of the American Association season. The rich got richer today as Chicago dealt Brantley Bell to Kansas City and Jairus Richards gets dealt from Gary SouthShore to manager Jeff Isom's buddy Chris Coste and Fargo-Moorhead. Milwaukee 6 Gary SouthShore 5 Chase Estep drove in three runs and Kaden Hollow had a home run and three runs driven in to lead the Milkmen to a come from behind win over Gary SouthShore at U.S. Steel Yard. Cooper Weiss and L.J. Castillo both homered for the RailCats. Kane County 6 Lake Country 3 The Cougars jumped out to a 6-0 and held off the first place DockHounds, handing them their eighth straight loss. Marcus Chiu had three hits including a solo home run, and Oscar Santos homered for the Cougars. Jake Stevenson picked up the win with 5.2 innings of one hit, no run ball. Ray Zuberer III and Chavez Young homered late in the game for the DockHounds. Sioux Falls 5 Sioux City 3 Tanner Brown held the Explorers to two runs in...
Read more

American Association Insider: July 13, 2025

Image
 Seven games on tap for a Sunday afternoon in the American Association. If you weren't at a ballpark, I hope you all enjoyed your Sunday, whatever you did.  Milwaukee 12 Kane County 3 The Milkmen building on the momentum of last night's walk off win defeated the Cougars at Franklin Field. The Milkmen put this one away with a five run third inning, highlighted by a three run home run by Scott Ota. It was a part of a three RBI day for Ota. Last night's hero Chase Estep went 4-6 and Delvin Perez went 4-5 to lead the Milkmen attack. Chase Gearing won his second start in a row with a six inning, one earned run effort.  Kansas City 5 Winnipeg 4 A Ross Adolph sacrifice fly in the sixth inning put the Monarchs ahead for good as they defeated the Goldeyes for the ninth time in ten games at Blue Cross Park. Jailyn Williams went 3-5 for the Goldeyes to lead a 11 hit attack. Andy Armstrong had three hits out of the nine hole for the Goldeyes. Daniel Martinez made it through five inni...
Read more