Lake County Scores Ten Times in the First Inning, Tops Kernels 11-3

Cedar Rapids, IA - Lake County scored ten times in the top of the first inning Saturday night and never looked back en route to an 11-3 win over Cedar Rapids.

For the fourth time in the series, Lake County scored first, and this time, it erupted. A pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with no one in the top of the first inning out for Cooper Ingle, who lifted the Captains on the board with a grand slam to make it instantly 4-0. The next two batters reached on another hit-by-pitch and a single, and after they both moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch, they scored on a Maick Collado two-run single to increase the lead to 6-0. After Justin Boyd singled to again put a pair of runners on base, Nate Furman cleared the bases with a two-run triple. With Furman on third, the next batter, Alex Mooney, blasted a two-run home run to cap off the first half inning and make it 10-0 Lake County.

Down 10-0 coming to the plate for the first time, Jay Harry hit a leadoff home run in the Kernels half of the first to cut the deficit to 10-1.

That stayed the score until the top of the fifth when the Captains went up by double-digits once again. Three straight singles to begin the inning plated another Lake County run and made it 11-1.

But that was the only run allowed by Kernels pitching outside the first inning. A.J. Labas (4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 K), Juan Mendez (2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 K) and Sheldon Reed (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 K) combined to throw eighth one-run innings out of the Cedar Rapids bullpen after the first frame.

On offense, the Kernels tallied runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Rubel Cespedes and in the eighth on an RBI groundout from Kyle Hess, but it was far too little too late in the 11-3 loss.

The loss is the Kernels' third of the series with Lake County and drops Cedar Rapids to 30-19 on the season. The Kernels and Captains wrap up their series tomorrow at 1:05 with Miguelangel Boadas on the mound opposite Trent Denholm.