Peoria Rally Falls Short Saturday

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The Peoria Chiefs got the tying run on base in the eighth, and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth before falling 6-4 to Cedar Rapids.

The Chiefs jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead for the second night in a row. With two outs in the first, Dakota Harris singled into right field to score Chris Rotondo and extend his hit streak to 13 games. The next batter, Brody Moore, doubled to the wall in right center to plate Harris and extend the lead to 2-0.

From there, Peoria turned it over to starter Brycen Mautz. After punching out the side in the first, the left-hander surrendered some hard contact. A second-inning homer from Nate Baez cut the deficit to 2-1.

In the third, Cedar Rapids took the lead on the strength of another home run. Kernels designated hitter Ricardo Olivar lined a two-run homer over the high wall in left field to give Cedar Rapids a 3-2 edge.

Olivar delivered another timely hit in the home half of the fifth. His double to the gap in right center pushed the Cedar Rapids lead to 4-2. After a fielding error, Mautz was removed from the game in favor of Gustavo Rodriguez. He was greeted by a Kevin Maitan single to make it a 5-2 game.

The Kernels tacked on another run in the seventh. After a two-base error allowed Rayne Doncon to reach, he was stationed at third with one out. Rubel Cespedes singled through a drawn-in infield to grow the lead to 6-2.

Peoria made some noise in the eighth inning to creep back into the ballgame. After back-to-back walks to Harris and Moore, William Sullivan singled in Harris to cut the Kernels lead to 6-3. Then, Joshua Baez plated Moore with an infield hit to make it 6-4.

Cedar Rapids then turned to closer Gabriel Yanez, who entered action with a sub-one ERA. The left-hander wiggled out of the eighth inning and after serving up a single to Rotondo in the ninth, Yanez dialed up a 5-4-3 double play to end the contest.

Quinn Mathews will start for the Chiefs in Sunday’s series finale. Mathews leads Minor League Baseball with 103 strikeouts on the year between Single-A Palm Beach and Peoria. First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m.