Beloit Scores Six Times in the First, Upends Cedar Rapids 9-4

Beloit, WI - The Sky Carp offense scored six times in the bottom of the first inning and opened up a lead as large as 8-0, which they would never lose in a 9-4 win over Cedar Rapids Friday night.

After opening up multiple run leads across the first three games of the series, it didn’t take long for the Sky Carp to get on the board first on Friday. Three straight singles with one out in the bottom of the first inning produced a run and put more runners on for Brock Vrandenburg, who instantly made it 3-0 with a two-run triple. After a Jake DeLeo double plated him, DeLeo scored on an RBI base hit to make it 5-0. A walk and a hit-by-pitch then loaded the bases with two outs for Johnny Olmstead, who walked home a run to make it 6-0 Beloit after the first inning.

In the second, the Sky Carp weren’t done. Osiris Johnson tripled to open the frame, and a batter later, he scored on a Vrandenburg sac fly to up the Beloit lead to 7-0.

In the fourth, Vrandenburg blasted a solo home run to increase the Sky Carp advantage to its largest of the night, 8-0.

The Kernels got on the board for the first time in the fifth. Nate Baez ripped his 10th home run of the season down the line in left field to open up the frame and make it 8-1. Behind him, a Jay Harry single and an Agustin Ruiz double put two in scoring position for Jose Salas, who made it 8-2 with an RBI single. The next batter, Ricardo Olivar, lifted a sac fly to left to cut the Sky Carp lead down to 8-3.

But a five-run deficit was the closest the Kernels would get. A Chase Luttrell double and a Mark Coley RBI triple in the Sky Carp half on the eight upped the Beloit back up to six at 9-3.

A Ruiz RBI single in the top of the ninth inning brought the game back within five, but it was too little too late in the Cedar Rapids 9-4 loss.

The defeat is the Kernels' third in four games to begin the series in Beloit and it drops Cedar Rapids to 49-34 and 12-7 in the second half. Game five of the six-game series is set for tomorrow at 6:35, with Christian MacLeod on the mound opposite Cade Gibson.