Cubs Pitching Quiets Kernels' Offense, South Bend Tops Cedar Rapids 4-1

Cedar Rapids, IA - Tyler Schlaffer punched out ten across seven scoreless innings, including six no-hit frames, and the Cubs' offense rallied for four late runs to knock off the Kernels 4-1 Wednesday afternoon.

After sixteen combined runs Tuesday evening, pitching shined early on Wednesday. Kernels starter Chase Chaney began his afternoon with six strikeouts through six scoreless innings, but his counterpart was even sharper.

South Bend starter Tyler Schlaffer went six innings of no-hit baseball before Andy Lugo doubled in the seventh inning to break up the bid. Schlaffer finished his day with ten strikeouts in seven scoreless innings en route to his third win of the season.

In the seventh inning, South Bend broke through. Cameron Sisneros led off the inning with a walk, then moved up to second on a Miguel Pabon base on balls. One batter later, Ivan Brethowr muscled a single into right to bring home Sisneros to put the Cubs up 1-0. Later in the inning, with Pabon on third and one out, Brian Kalmer lifted a sacrifice fly into left field to plate Pabon to make it 2-0.

In the top of the eighth inning, South Bend extended its lead. Jefferson Rojas and Christian Hernandez walked to lead off the frame. Rojas stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. After Hernandez moved up to second on a walk, he stole third and scored on a throwing error to increase the advantage to 4-0.

The Kernels got a run late on a Danny De Andrade triple and a Billy Amick sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth but could not overcome the deficit in the 4-1 Cubs win.

With the loss, Cedar Rapids falls to 1-4 in the second half of the season and to 0-2 in the series against South Bend. Game three is set for Thursday evening at 6:35 with Tanner Hall on the mound for the Kernels opposite Evan Aschenbeck.