Gray homers, Kernels fall 10-7 to Dayton

Cedar Rapids, IA – The Cedar Rapids Kernels fell 10-7 to the Dayton Dragons on Thursday evening, done in by an early 5-0 deficit. Seth Gray homered and drove in three as part of the Kernels comeback effort, while Christian Encarnacion-Strand doubled twice and Dylan Neuse added a two-hit, two-RBI night. Thanks to a Wisconsin loss, the Kernels magic number drops to three entering Friday.

Dayton plated four runs in the first then added another in the second. The Kernels responded in the second as Gray led off with a walk and later scored on a Neuse RBI single. Gray added two more to make it a two-run game in the third by launching a two-run opposite-field blast to left.

The Dragons scored twice in the fifth and stretched their lead to 10-3 with a three-spot in the eighth. Cedar Rapids once again responded with a big eighth of their own, opened with Aaron Sabato reaching on a walk then scoring on a one-out Yunior Severino RBI single. Pat Winkel followed with a double to put two in scoring position for Neuse, who promptly plated Severino with a groundout. Will Holland lofted a fly ball to shallow left that was dropped by Dayton’s shortstop, scoring Winkel.

The comeback effort fell short in the ninth with a lone run coming across courtesy of Gray plating Kyler Fedko on an RBI groundout.

Game four of the series is set for 6:35 p.m. on Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

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