Povich carves, three homers power Kernels to 6-2 win over Quad Cities

Cedar Rapids, IA – The Cedar Rapids Kernels brought the fireworks early on Saturday evening as Anthony Prato and Will Holland led off the first two frames with homers while Aaron Sabato added a three-run shot of his own in a 6-2 win over Quad Cities. Cade Povich carved up the River Bandits with 5.0 innings of eight-strikeout baseball, scattering four hits and a walk while allowing a lone unearned run. With the win, the Kernels improve to 18-8 on the year and remain 2.0 full games ahead in the West Division standings.

Prato led off the home half of the first with a blast to left, followed by Jeferson Morales lining a single to left. Two batters later Seth Gray was hit by a pitch then Wander Javier drew a walk followed by a Charles Mack RBI double blasted off the center field wall, putting the Kernels up 2-0.

Holland belted a homer to left to open the second inning. Prato drew a one-out walk, Morales singled to left-center then Aaron Sabato unloaded on a three-run home run to deep left-center that doubled the Kernels’ lead to 6-0.

Quad Cities would get an unearned run in the fourth and tallied a second run in the sixth, but the Cedar Rapids pen held tight the rest of the way to secure the win. Bobby Milacki struck out three over 2.0 innings of one-run ball, then Denny Bentley retired all six he faced and fanned four to close things out.

Morales supplied the Kernels with a three-hit game and scored a pair of runs to help fuel the early offense.

Game six is set for Sunday with a 2:05 p.m. CT first pitch at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The first 500 fans will receive a 2022 Kernels Team Photo presented by Copyworks.

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