To Kane County Cougars manager Lynn Jones, winning was not the only thing. The season had been a remarkable success, regardless of what happened Thursday night. A loss would only validate the progress, not destroy it.
The Cougars must take solace in that now, because they can’t in the result. A team that had clawed all season just to get to the .500 mark, a team whose boisterous and loyal fans reflected the heart of minor-league baseball, just wasn’t good enough in the all-or-nothing game it had to win.
Kane County fell 9-7 to the Lansing Lugnuts in the fifth and final game of the Class A Midwest League championship series Thursday night, a heartbreaker for the 28 players and 2,580 fans at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva. But the season, Jones reasoned, was a growth process, and the loss part of it.
“This is all a 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.”
A five-run fifth inning by Lansing, a Kansas City Royals affiliate, was too much for Kane County, whose stellar pitching finally failed at the worst time. The Cougars, a Florida Marlins affiliate, had taken a 4-0 lead in the second on center-fielder Scott Podsednik’s two-run double. But two big Lansing innings and an 80-minute power outage in the ninth inning were too much to overcome.
“It was a Cinderella story,” said first baseman Jason Garrett, “but the carriage turned back into a pumpkin tonight.”
Despite the ending, the Cougars’ season followed a sentimental script, 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, “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. We’ve got a lot of those guys here.”
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 Cougars 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.
“I can’t say it was one person, but Brent probably did a little better than anybody else,” Jones said. “We could go to him to stop a losing streak or start a winning streak. He was the guy we all kind of looked to, and he delivered.”
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 winning streak.
“It has been a fun second half watching them grow,” Jones said. “This is what the minor leagues are all about.”
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