Late Surge Powers Kernels Past River Bandits 4-2

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Cedar Rapids broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the eighth and two in the ninth to grab a lead it would not lose in a 4-2 win over Quad Cities Friday night.

After not leading in the last two losses, the Kernels got on the board first on Friday. With two outs in the top of the third, Jacob McCombs singled to left. After a balk moved him to second, he scored on an error to make it 1-0.

That stayed the score until the sixth. Ivran Romero made his second start of the season and did not allow a run across the first three innings. Behind him, Yehizon Sanchez struck out three across two scoreless innings of relief.

In the last of the sixth, the River Bandits pulled even. Blake Mitchell worked a two-out walk and scored on back-to-back singles from Ramon Ramirez and Luke Pelzer to level the game 1-1.

The Kernels rallied to take the lead back in the eighth. After a pair of strikeouts to begin the inning, McCombs was hit by a pitch and scored all the way from first on a Brandon Winokur RBI double to jump Cedar Rapids back in front 2-1.

The Kernels added two big runs of insurance in the top of the ninth. Khadim Diaw doubled to lead off the inning, and a batter later, Jaime Ferrer launched a two-run home run to left to extend the advantage to 4-1.

Quad Cities got a run back on a sacrifice fly following a Pelzer triple in the bottom of the ninth, but that was as close as it would get in the 4-2 Kernels win.

The victory improves Cedar Rapids to 16-15 on the season and to 2-2 in the series at Quad Cities. The six-game set continues at 5:30 on Saturday with Eli Jones on the mound opposite Emmanuel Reyes.