Prato walks off Quad Cities in 11-inning thriller
Cedar Rapids, IA – Stellar pitching was on full display at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Mother’s Day as Anthony Prato and the Cedar Rapids Kernels walked off the Quad Cities River Bandits 2-1 in 11 innings. Kernels pitchers allowed just four hits and three walks while striking out 15 on
Cedar Rapids, IA – Stellar pitching was on full display at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Mother’s Day as Anthony Prato and the Cedar Rapids Kernels walked off the Quad Cities River Bandits 2-1 in 11 innings. Kernels pitchers allowed just four hits and three walks while striking out 15 on the afternoon, keeping things locked tight before Prato lifted a walk-off sacrifice fly to right in the 11th inning. With the win, Cedar Rapids improves to 19-8 and remains 2.0 full games up in the West Division.
Sawyer Gipson-Long was dominant in his fifth start of the season, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings of three-hit ball with six strikeouts. He retired 15 of the last 16 men he faced, walking none and throwing 51 strikes on 80 pitches. Andrew Cabezas retired all five he faced and stuck out the side in the seventh.
Quad Cities got on the board first in the eighth with a solo home run, taking a 1-0 lead into the home half. Aaron Sabato and Jair Camargo began the following frame with back-to-back singles, then Sabato advanced to third on a deep fly to center off the bat of Charles Mack. Wander Javier poked a fielder’s choice into right to plate Sabato and tie things up at one.
Orlando Rodriguez worked around back-to-back walks to work a scoreless ninth. Heading into the tenth, Brad Hanner took over and struck out a pair before Sabato made a tremendous catch running up the bullpen mound with his back to home plate, ending the top half of the tenth. The Kernels left the bases loaded in the home half.
Hanner worked his magic again in the 11th, striking out two more to send things to the home half still knotted at one. A pair of intentional walks around a sacrifice bunt loaded the bases for Prato, who worked the count full then blasted a sacrifice fly out to right, scoring Javier and walking off the River Bandits 2-1.
Cedar Rapids has now won four of their last five, taking the series four games to two.
The Kernels are off Monday before beginning a six-game series at Peoria on Tuesday, May 10.
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