Kernels Explode for 15 Runs on 20 Hits, Blast Lansing 15-7

Lansing, MI - Cedar Rapids recorded a season-high 20 hits Tuesday night, scoring early and often to take down Lansing 15-7 in the series opener.

After Lansing scored three times in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-0 lead, the Kernels offense got going in the top of the third. With one out in the inning, Back-to-back singles by Ricardo Olivar and Rubel Cespedes put two on for Rayne Doncon, who put the Kernels on the board with an RBI double. With two runners in scoring position, the next batter, Agustin Ruiz, tied the game at 3-3 with a two-run double. After Kevin Maitan reached with a base hit, Jose Salas put the Kernels on top 4-3 with an RBI hit. After a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Kyle Hess produced his first Kernels extra-base hit with an RBI double and came home to score along with Salas on a Jay Harry two-run single to cap off a season-high seven-run inning and make it 7-3.

In the bottom of the inning, a bases-loaded walk cut the Kernels lead to 7-4, and in the fourth, a Will Simpson two-run home run made it a one-run game at 7-6.

But that was the closest it would get. In the top of the fifth, a Maitan single and a Salas hit by pitch put two on for Nate Baez, who cleared the bases with a two-run double. Later in the inning, a catcher’s interference and a Harry single loaded the bases, and a second catcher’s interference brought home a run to make it 10-6.

After Lansing scored again on a Herny Bolte solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut it to 10-7, it was all Cedar Rapids the rest of the way.

In the top of the seventh, four straight singles by Harry, Olivar, Cespedes and Doncon scored two more runs to lift Cedar Rapids ahead 12-7.

In the eighth, Dalton Shuffield led off the frame with an opposite-field home run. Later in the inning, Baez walked, and after a couple of fielder’s choices, Ricardo Olivar blasted a two-run shot for his fourth hit of the night to up the Kernels' lead to 15-7, the score that would be the final.

All ten Kernels who came to the plate got a hit in the win, as Cedar Rapids improves to 33-24 on the season. Game two of the series in Lansing is set for tomorrow at 6:05, with Christian MacLeod on the mound opposite Blaze Pontes.