This is definitely minor-league baseball.
The Kane County Cougars, hosts for the fifth and deciding game of the Class A Midwest League championship Thursday night, had their unusual season made even weirder when the lights at Geneva’s Elfstrom Stadium went out in the ninth inning.
A power outage knocked out some of the stadium lights, forcing a lengthy delay in the Cougars’ championship game with the Lansing Lugnuts. Lansing led 8-5 with two on and one out in the top of the ninth when the delay hit about 9:15 p.m.
When the lights came back on, so did the offenses, but the Cougars lost 9-7.
Some of the light towers were operable, but officials didn’t want to continue until all lights had been turned back on. To make things even weirder, the Cougars’ and Lugnuts’ mascots got into a scuffle during the delay, resulting in the ejection of the Lansing mascot, “Big Lug.”
The result of the game, it seems, just didn’t matter as much as the circumstances from the outset. To Cougars manager Lynn Jones, winning was not the only thing. The season had been a success regardless of what happened Thursday night, he said.
The season, Jones reasoned, was a growth process, and a win or loss just part of it–especially since his team had clawed all season just to get to the .500 mark.
“This is all bonus,” Jones said. “Just getting to the playoffs has been outstanding. At this level, the bottom line isn’t winning and losing. It’s about how you get better. We want to win, but we’ve had a great run.”
The Cougars’ season was a sentimental script in the making, a team with borderline talent overcoming it with the old standbys: hard work and desire. They weren’t loaded with big-time draft picks or highly touted major-league prospects, and they didn’t get above water until a nine-game winning streak in August.
“Without a doubt, we’ve had more talent here in the past,” said Jones, finishing his fourth season as manager for the Florida Marlins affiliate, “but we haven’t had more guts and determination. There are certain guys on every team who may not have as much talent, but they play harder.”
Not that the talent cupboard is totally bare, especially on the pitching staff. Left-hander Brent Billingsley, 22, from Cal-State Fullerton, has a good changeup that Jones says “could get major-league hitters out.” As the season progressed, Billingsley became the go-to guy, setting a team record with 175 strikeouts in 170 innings. In the playoffs, he was 2-0 with a 0.53 earned-run average, striking out 21 in 17 innings.
The rest of the staff was outstanding as well, especially down the stretch. Right-hander Aaron Cames threw a 1-0 no-hitter against Peoria in late August that finally pushed the Cougars over the .500 mark at 66-65, part of the nine-game streak. One of the few touted prospects, 19-year old Nelson Lara, is the best prospect in the Marlins’ entire organization, said Jones.
“With expansion, nothing’s out of range for a lot of people now,” Jones said. “But the next step is totally up to them.”
