Kernels Outlast Peoria 8-6 in Ten Innings, Win Eighth Straight

Peoria, IL - Ricardo Olivar and Kevin Maitan both notched tenth-inning RBIs to break a 6-6 tie and propel the Kernels to a series-opening win over Peoria Tuesday night.

After picking up their first six-game sweep since 2022 last week against Quad Cities, the Kernels hopped on the board first to open the series in Peoria. With one out in the top of the second, a Rayne Doncon walk and an Agustin Ruiz hit-by-pitch put two runners on for Misael Urbina, who put the Kernels on the board with an RBI single. With two runners still on, Dalton Suffield extended the Cedar Rapids lead to 3-0 with a two-run double, and a batter later, he came home to score and make it 4-0 on a Keoni Cavaco RBI single.

In the bottom of the fifth, Peoria cut the Kernels' lead in half. With one out, Brody Moore reached on a single, and the next batter, Zach Levenson, got the Chiefs on the board with a two-run home run to make it 4-2.

It didn’t take long for the Kernels to respond. In the top of the sixth inning, Agustin Ruiz reached on a one-out single. Two batters later, Shuffield crushed his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left, to cap off his four-RBI night and put Cedar Rapids ahead 6-2.

Trailing by four in the last of the sixth, Peoria rallied back. After an error to begin the inning a Leonardo Bernal double plated a run to make it 6-3. Following a strikeout, a single put two runners aboard for Joshua Baez, who lifted a game-tying three-run home run over the wall in left field to tie the game at 6-6.

That score remained until the top of the tenth inning. With Jose Salas on as the extra-inning runner, Ricardo Olivar put the Kernels back on top with an RBI single. The next batter, Rubel Cespedes, then advanced Olivar to third with a single, and Kevin Maitan drove him home with a groundout to extend the Kernels' lead to 8-6, the score that would be the final.

Ricardo Velez picked up the win for the Kernels, pitching 1-2-3 innings in both the ninth and tenth innings. Combined with A.J. Labas, who tossed 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth, Kernels' pitching combined to retire the final 14 batters of the game in the win.

The victory is the Kernels' eighth straight win and improves Cedar Rapids to 25-14 on the season. Game two of the six-game series in Peoria is set for tomorrow at 6:35 with John Klein on the mound opposite Hancel Rincon.