Kuresa breaks out of slump, Kernels win in extras

CEDAR RAPIDS – Finally.

Tyler Kuresa didn't outwardly say that's what he was feeling Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium, though it was words to that effect.

You go through a slump that lasts for awhile, and you begin to wonder if you'll ever get another hit. Or another chance to get another hit.

Professional baseball is a performance-based game. There is pressure on these guys.

'I've been feeling pretty good for about four or five days here, but I just haven't been getting the results,” the Cedar Rapids Kernels first baseman said, after his team's 6-5, 10-inning win over Peoria before 3,073 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'Today, it showed up in the form of results. That was really nice for me. It was just relieving.”

Kuresa was 0 for his last 24 when he clutched up on a two-run double in the fifth inning. Leading off the bottom of the 10th, he lined a single to center.

His pinch runner, Zack Larson, eventually scored the winning run on a throwing error past past home plate.

'I think every player at some point in their career, and some players multiple times in their career, hit a wall,” Kuresa said. 'I think I just hit a wall. I've been working through it. Really the only thing you can do is try and have a positive attitude and work hard in batting practice and stuff before games. I've been doing that every day, working with (hitting coach) Tommy (Watkins). We've been tweaking some things in my swing.”

Kuresa is a left-handed pull hitter. Some Midwest League teams have put a shift on him, placing three infielders on the right side of the diamond and the third baseman basically at shortstop.

He admits that has messed with his head some, which made his slump-busting performance Wednesday so encouraging. His double was to right-center field, his single toward left-center.

'I was shifted like that a little bit in college, so I'm a little bit used to it,” said Kuresa, a 16th-round draft pick of the parent Minnesota Twins last year out of California-Santa Barbara. 'When they started pitching me into the shift, I started flying open, and I think that's where the slump really started for me. So, yeah, just getting back up the middle has been important. But even more than that, I've been seeing the ball a lot better. I haven't been swinging as much at those inside fastballs that maybe aren't strikes . Maybe they are strikes, but they're not the pitch I want to hit.”

Kuresa, 22, has worked since he was a kid with Leon Lee, a former Japanese League player and manager and the father of former major league first baseman Derrick Lee. The Lees would have been proud of their protégé here.

'Really good at-bats today,” said Kernels Manager Jake Mauer. 'I thought he slowed himself down. Instead of trying to yank the ball out to the parking lot across the street in right field, he just stayed nice and easy right up the middle and hit two missiles. Hopefully that gets him going. We're counting on him being a middle-of-the-lineup hitter for us. He's got the ability to do it. It's just a matter of getting his confidence back.”

The Kernels (21-12) rallied from a pair of four-run holes to win for the eighth time in nine games. The loss was Tuesday night in 11 innings, so this was a nice rebound overall.

Zack Tillery really picked up an overused bullpen, throwing four shutout innings and striking out six. Randy LeBlanc (2-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for the victory.

After Kuresa's single, newcomer Blake Schmit reached on a well-placed bunt between the mound and first base that losing reliever Robby Rowland couldn't handle. Schmit went 2-for-3.

Tanner English then laid down a two-strike sacrifice bunt to move the runners along. Peoria Manager Joe Kruzel then went with a five-man infield, moving right fielder Nick Thompson to a pseudo-second base.

Nick Gordon, who has had a propensity for hitting groundballs so far this season, chopped one to first baseman Justin Ringo. Larson was coming home on contact, which perhaps forced Ringo to hurry his throw, which catcher Steve Bean had no chance to field.

'It doesn't surprise me with Joe,” Mauer said of the five-infielder strategy. 'He does a lot of different things. My dad used to do that a lot (as a coach). He used to bring six infielders in. If you hit the ball to the outfield, you beat us. It worked more than you would think. Guys get those big eyes, and you strike out or roll over a pitch. Haven't really seen five infielders in awhile, but they guessed right.”

The teams conclude their four-game series Thursday night at 6:35. Stephen Gonsalves (3-1, 1.41 earned run average) is scheduled to start for Cedar Rapids.

In a pregame ceremony Wednesday, Linn-Mar senior Niki Sharma was announced as the 2015 winner of the Nick Adenhart Scholarship. Adenhart is a former Kernels pitcher who died in an automobile accident as a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels.

His family has set up the $1,000 scholarship annually to an area athlete headed to college. Sharma will attend Washington (Mo.).

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