Harris Homers Again, Chiefs Fall 5-2

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – Dakota Harris hit his fourth home run in his last six games Tuesday, but the Chiefs were otherwise held in check in a 5-2 loss to Cedar Rapids.

Harris, who was named the Midwest League’s Player of the Week on Monday, stepped up to the plate with two outs in the seventh inning. The infielder smacked the first pitch he saw way over the left field wall to cut the Chiefs deficit to 3-2. For Harris, it was his seventh blast of the season, bringing him within one of the team lead.

With the score 3-2 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Kernels added on a pair of insurance tallies against the Peoria bullpen. With runners at second and third, Kyle Hess brought in the lead runner with a sac fly to right. Chris Rotondo’s throw back to the infield was off the mark and allowed the second man to score to make it 5-2.

Cedar Rapids did much of their work in the early innings on Tuesday before stranding a myriad of runners in the middle innings. The Kernels scored a first-inning run on a Rayne Doncon single to make it 1-0. An inning later, Nate Baez homered to center to double the Kernels lead, 2-0. Payton Eeles later scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 3-0.

Peoria starter Inohan Paniagua battled command issues, but worked through five innings on Tuesday. He surrendered three runs. All told, the Chiefs issued six walks and hit four Kernels batters as a staff.

The Chiefs offense, which had been among the league’s best in June, was held to just three hits in the loss. Won-Bin Cho had the other two hits for Peoria. Kernels Left-hander Christian MacLeod stymied Peoria on Tuesday, whiffing 10 batters.

Game two of the series is set for 12:05 p.m. in Cedar Rapids. Pete Hansen is the probable starter for Peoria.