Cubs Drop Opener at Cedar Rapids 10-4

Cedar Rapids, IA - The South Bend Cubs pieced together one four-run comeback on Tuesday night against the Cedar Rapids Kernels, both couldn’t storm back and do it for a second time. The Cubs fought from behind for nearly all of this week’s series opener at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium, and fell to the Kernels by a final of 10-4.

Tyler Schlaffer got the start for South Bend, and the Kernels bats were hot in the 1st inning, laying four runs on the board, including a home run from Danny De Andrade. After just an inning, it was a 4-0 Cedar Rapids lead.

The first Cubs comeback of the night? Credit right-hander Connor Schultz for keeping South Bend in the game. The Iowa native and former Iowa Hawkeyes right-hander was back pitching in his home state, and he worked back-to-back-to-back shutout innings to keep the Kernels lineup quiet. It’s an interesting series for Schultz, as Brian Meyer, the Kernels manager, is his former assistant coach at Butler during his time there. And tonight’s starter for Cedar Rapids, Ty Langenberg, was his teammate at Iowa when Schultz finished his college career there.

Still a 4-0 game going to the 4th, Ivan Brethowr was hit by a pitch to start the inning against Langenberg. The next batter was Jefferson Rojas, who crushed his first home run of the season to cut the lead in half. South Bend was far from done, and got base hits from Andy Garriola and Reivaj Garcia. Carter Trice walked, and the bases were loaded for Reggie Preciado, who singled home two to tie it at 4-4.

Preciado set a season high with three hits, and he has been on-base in eight straight games; With hits in three in a row.

The Cubs got it tied, but they never were able to take the lead. Cedar Rapids responded with a double from Khadim Diaw in the 5th, which was the eventual game winning RBI. Later, the Kernels posted another big inning in the 7th, scoring five runs, including a home run from Gabriel Gonzalez.

Interestingly, two Kernels players, Gonzalez and De Andrade, missed the cycle by one step. They hit back-to-back in the lineup, and each had an at-bat in the 8th inning with a cycle on the line. Neither of them executed.

With the loss, the Cubs fall to 6-16 on the year and will play game two of this series on Wednesday night at 7:35 PM EST. Left-hander Evan Aschenbeck will make his first Midwest League start, after making his High-A debut last week out of the bullpen.