Morgan Hawk still calling C.R. Kernels games, just not as many

CEDAR RAPIDS - That chuckle you heard Saturday night was Morgan Hawk.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels played a double-header at Clinton that didn't conclude until about 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning. The first game went an excruciatingly long 18 innings.

The team returned to town about 2:30 a.m. and was right back at Veterans Memorial Stadium seven hours later for a follow-up bus trip to Clinton and a 2 p.m. game.

This was a case of better you than me. It was Chris Kleinhans-Schulz and not Hawk who had to experience that nightmare.

'That was nuts. I couldn't believe it,” Hawk said with a smile. 'I was following it, listening to Chris for awhile. I saw on Twitter that we had tied it with two outs in the seventh. I'd tune in for awhile, and it'd be the 13th inning, the 14th, the 15th. I texted Chris and said something like ‘I feel for you, man.'”

Hawk was on the air Thursday night, calling C.R.'s 7-6 walk-off win over West Michigan at Veterans Memorial Stadium with Kleinhans-Schulz. But the six-year 'Voice of the Kernels” is calling only home games this season.

He has taken on other responsibilities instead, as sales manager for the collegiate Northwood League's Waterloo Bucks. They are owned by the Kernels.

'I didn't want to give it up completely,” Hawk said of radio. 'That's how I got into baseball.”

But he surely can't miss all the travel and bus rides. Married in the offseason, he lives in town with his wife, Jill, and makes enough trips to and from Waterloo to satisfy.

He'll be even busier once the Bucks' season begins at the end of May.

'They kind of wanted someone up there, and it kind of worked out,” he said. 'I jumped at the opportunity. We kind of made up the job description kind of because I don't want to give up the radio completely. (CEO) Doug Nelson and I talked about it and worked out a plan where I'll still be here for the home games. Chris will do the road games.”

The Kernels (12-9) rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, Sean Miller scurrying home from third with two outs on a Jon Maciel wild pitch. A preceding J.J. Fernandez RBI single off Whitecaps closer Gerson Moreno tied things at 6-6.

Before the game, the Kernels and parent Minnesota Twins announced a pair of player moves. Outfielder Max Murphy and relief pitcher John Curtiss were promoted to high-Class A Fort Myers and replaced on the roster by outfielder Daniel Kihle and pitcher Kuo Hua Lo, who comes in from extended spring training.

Lo actually never left Cedar Rapids. He was sent to extended spring (on paper) Sunday, a move made of necessity because of Saturday's 25-inning twinbill.

Kihle, 22, was an 18th-round pick of the Twins last year out of Wichita State. He was immediately put into the starting lineup Thursday and was injured in the second inning on a collision with shortstop Jermaine Palacios as they chased a short flyball.

Kihle did hit in the bottom of the inning and reached on a fielder's choice but was removed in favor of LaMonte Wade in the top of the third.

The Kernels begin a three-game home series against the South Bend Cubs on Friday night at 6:35.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com