Diaz doubles Kernels to victory in opener

Lewin Diaz led the Midwest League in doubles this season, but he never had more than two in a game. At least not until Wednesday night.
Minnesota's No. 10 prospect ripped three two-baggers in four at-bats and plated four runs as Class A Cedar Rapids topped Kane County at Perfect Game Field, 6-5, in the first round of the Midwest League playoffs. It was Diaz's 11th three-hit game of the season.

Diaz plated two with a double to right field off Mack Lemieux in the first inning to open the scoring before ripping another two-run double to center in the second to knock Lemieux from the game in his shortest start of the year. After grounding out to first in the fifth, Diaz doubled to lead off the bottom of the eighth and came around to score the go-ahead run on Jimmy Kerrigan's ground-ball single to right.
"He took some good swings every at-bat," Kernels manager Tommy Watkins said. "That last one was one that stood out to me, he got down 0-2 and battled and hit it to left for a double that ended up being the winning run. The two-RBI double that he had to right-center was on a 3-0 count, so I applaud him for not being afraid to swing the bat on 3-0. A lot of young hitters are afraid to make outs on 3-0. During the year we put them in situations to not be afraid to swing on 3-0, and he came through tonight."
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The 20-year-old first baseman ended the season on an 11-game hitting streak, raising his average from .283 to .292 in the process, and continued his hot-hitting ways to start the postseason. It marked his second game this season with at least four RBIs, the first coming May 2 against Lake County.
"I definitely think he just treated it like another game," Watkins said. "He was on a little streak coming down the end of season, raised his average 10 to 15 points the last couple weeks. Just playing the game ... he's comfortable, laying off some pitches, fouling some pitches off. He looked really good in there."
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The Kernels also made two fielding errors that led to two unearned runs -- consecutive miscues by shortstop Jordan Gore and third baseman Caleb Hamilton in the second -- which Watkins would like to see cleaned up during Game 2, which will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday in Kane County.
"We had a couple errors on some routine balls, just [want to] finish the plays, make the routine plays, have fun and put up good at-bats," Watkins said. "Just continue to have fun and play the game hard."

Kerrigan had two hits and two RBIs to account for the rest of the Cedar Rapids runs.
Kane County's Ramon Hernandez had two hits, including a homer, and drove in two. Manny Jefferson added two hits and two RBIs.
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