Kernels Take Down River Bandits, 4-2

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Early offense and another strong start from Louie Varland carried the Cedar Rapids Kernels to a 4-2 win Friday against the Quad Cities River Bandits in front of a season-high crowd of 3,516 fans at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Kernels (45-37) scored four runs over the first two frames. Yunior Severino’s two-run single and Seth Gray’s RBI force out gave Cedar Rapids its 3-0 first-inning lead. Within the bottom of the second, Matt Wallner extended the advantage to 4-0 on a bloop single.

Varland (2-0) notched his second consecutive victory and yielded just two runs over 5.2 innings pitched while posting a game-high five strikeouts. He opened with four shutout stanzas to secure a team-high scoreless streak of 20 innings to begin his Kernels tenure.

Quad Cities (54-26) cut its deficit in half late in Varland’s outing. Maikel Garcia hit an RBI triple in the fifth, and Jake Means produced a run-scoring double during the sixth that brought the River Bandits within 4-2.

Melvi Acosta and Zach Featherstone combined for 3.1 innings of relief with no runs and hits allowed to finish the victory. Acosta earned his second hold before Featherstone registered his seventh save.

A.J. Block (3-2) was the losing pitcher Friday. Block gave up four runs in three innings pitched. He was tabbed for 68 pitches including 41 in the opening stanza.

Coming up, the next contest in this six-game series will be played at 6:35 p.m. Saturday. Cedar Rapids right-hander Tyler Beck (2-1, 2.06) is tabbed to pitch against Quad Cities right-hander Christian Cosby (2-2, 4.17). Broadcast coverage with Chris Kleinhans-Schulz will be available on www.kernels.com and MiLB.TV.

Postgame fireworks will follow Saturday’s contest and all other Saturday Kernels home games within the 2021 regular season. Also, the Bud Curran scholarship presentation will take place before Cedar Rapids plays Quad Cities in the penultimate game of the series.

Fans can purchase tickets for all Cedar Rapids Kernels home games by visiting www.kernels.com, going to the Kernels Ticket Office, or calling (319) 896-7560. The Kernels Ticket Office is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays. On Sundays when the Kernels have a home game, the Kernels Ticket Office will open at 11:00 a.m.