Lansing Holds Cedar Rapids to Five Hits, Wins Series Finale 3-2

Lansing, MI – Sacrifice flies in the seventh and eighth innings provide just enough offense for Lasing to knock off Cedar Rapids 3-2 in a pitcher's dual Sunday Afternoon.

Zebby Matthews made his first career high-A start for Cedar Rapids and was greeted with power right away. To lead off the game, Euribiel Angeles smashed his third home run of the series to put Lansing ahead 1-0.

After that home run, however, Matthews settled in in a big way. The right-hander retired the next fourteen batters he faced, a new Kernels team season-high for most consecutive batters retired, tossing 1-2-3 frames in the second, third and fourth innings. Overall Matthews went 6.0 innings in his CR debut, allowing just the lone run on three hits while picking up six strikeouts with no walks.

With the Lansing bats quieted, the Kernels evened the score in the top of the third inning. After back-to-back singles by Tanner Schobel and Emmanuel Rodriguez, runners were on the corners for Ben Ross, who produced a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1.

The score remained tied at 1-1 all the way until the bottom of the seventh inning. With Matthews out of the game, a walk, a wild pitch, and another walk put runners on the corners with one out for Clark Elliot, who punched a fly ball into the outfield for a sac fly to put the Lugnuts back ahead at 2-1.

In the Top of the eighth, the Kernels again tied up the score. With one out, Kala’i Rosario shot a ball off the scoreboard for his fourth home run in four games to even the game at 2-2 after seven and a half.

In the bottom of the eighth, the game continued to rock and back and forth. A walk, wild pitch, and an error again put runners on the corners with one out, this time for Angeles, who lifted a ball into the outfield, allowing the runner to tag from third to again lift Lansing ahead, this time at 3-2.

Cedar Rapids did get a base runner on a two-out Jose Salas single in the top of the ninth inning, but Tyler Baum stranded him on first to close out his fourth save of the season and close out the series finale victory for the Lugnuts.

The loss drops the Kernels to 29-22 on the season, while Lansing improves to 23-28. Cedar Rapids finishes the set, taking four of six from the Lugnuts to begin the twelve-game road trip. Up next is the back end of the twelve-game trip with the first of six against Dayton Tuesday at 6:05. Kyle Jones gets the ball for the Kernels against Hunter Parks.