Christensen blasts his first two homers

It's been a good week to be a member of the Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball family. Chad Christensen is the latest to take his turn in the spotlight.

Christensen blasted his first two home runs of the season and drove in a career-best four runs as Class A Cedar Rapids doubled up Beloit, 6-3, at Perfect Game Field.

With his alma mater having clinched the No. 2 seed for the Big Ten Conference tournament on a walk-off home run this weekend and with former Huskers Alex Gordon and Cody Asche bashing big homers in the Major Leagues on Sunday, Christensen seemed to channel their energy Monday.

The center fielder didn't wait long to follow their lead. In the bottom of the first, Christensen connected for his initial blast of the season, a two-run shot to left field. Two innings later, after the Snappers rallied to take the lead on a three-run homer by Tyler Marincov, the Twins prospect came through again. After Ryan Walker's RBI triple, Christensen hammered his second two-run jack to left.

"I usually just try to stay with my approach to the middle of the field," Christensen said. "We've been talking about trying to get the barrel out when I'm expecting some pitches in hitters' counts and stuff like that. I've been working on that in BP with our hitting coach, Tommy [Watkins]. I got some good ones tonight and got some good swings off of them."

Christensen also singled and scored on Bryan Haar's base hit in the fifth and added another single and stolen base in the seventh. The four hits marked a career high.

The performance was just one of two four-hit days for the Kernels. Leadoff man Walker had three singles to go along with his triple, scoring twice and driving in a run.

"That's huge," Christensen said. "Ryan had a great night getting on base that much, swinging the bat well. As a leadoff guy, he runs well. He did a good job in putting himself in a position tonight to score runs."

The Kernels earned their second straight win a day after snapping an eight-game losing skid.

"It's baseball. Those streaks are going to happen," Christensen said, "but it's not a whole lot of fun to lose that many in a row. We got a win yesterday which was big for us, and it was really nice to get another win tonight."

The Cedar Rapids native is thriving at the plate and in the middle of the order for his hometown team. After batting .235 with a .671 OPS in 47 games in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League last year, his perfect day at the plate lifted the 23-year-old's average to .300 and his OPS to .779 through 36 contests this season.

"I live at home, so it's a pretty unique experience," he said. "I try to not take it for granted. I enjoy it every day. It's fun to be able to play professionally in a town where I grew up."

He also keeps tabs on his former collegiate teammates, who face Ohio State on Wednesday in the opener of conference tournament play. Christensen will be keeping a close eye on the Big Red.

"My brother still plays there, and I actually just talked to [Nebraska head coach Darin] Erstad the other day," he said. "They just clinched that two-seed on a big win. ... I know Alex Gordon hit a couple home runs the other day and Cody Asche hit one as well. It's been a pretty good week for some former Huskers and for the team right now."

Cedar Rapids starter Josue Montanez (1-2) was charged with three runs on five hits while striking out five and walking three in five innings. Yorman Landa tossed two scoreless innings and Hudson Boyd finished off the final two for his sixth save.

Beloit's Ronald Herrera (2-4) was charged with six runs on 10 hits while striking out four without walking a man over five innings.