Workman wins Game 1 with walk-off HR for Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - There are great starts to a baseball season, then there's what Andy Workman had. Let's just say it wasn't great.

It took the Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder eight games to get his first hit. a whopping 21 at-bats. You think he wasn't squeezing sawdust out of his bat by then?

That was part of his problem.

“He just needed to relax more at the plate,” Manager Jamie Burke said after Workman's walk-off home run to begin the bottom of the seventh inning gave the Kernels a 4-3 win over West Michigan in the first game of a double-header Monday night. “He was real stiff up there. So Ellie (hitting coach Mike Eylward) and I worked with him, trying to get him to loosen up. We told him to have a more relaxed approach, let the pitcher supply the power.”

That's what Workman did on his winner. He took a pitch from West Michigan's Kyle Ryan the other way to right field.

The ball didn't appear to be hit that great but just kept carrying and carrying, sneaking over the leap of Whitecaps right fielder Jason Krizan and the fence.

"I knew I got it good," Workman said. "But I didn't know if it would get out or not. I'm glad it kept going."

It did, giving Workman a perfect 3-for-3 game and raising his batting average to .246. That's a real nice comeback from 0-for-20.

Workman played right field again in the second game, going 0-for-3 with an RBI. West Michigan won, 10-6.

"It was definitely a struggle (early)," Workman said. "It was a good learning (tool). You try and take your at-bats one by one and try to erase your past ABs. You just keep grinding."

The teams complete their series Tuesday at noon, with newcomer Cam Bedrosian scheduled to pitch. He was a first-round draft pick of the parent Los Angeles Angels (29th overall) in 2010 but missed all of last season because of Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery.

Bedrosian was called up to the Kernels on Monday from extended spring training, replacing reliever Jacob Negrete on the roster. Negrete was sent to EST.

The right-hander is the son of former National League Cy Young Award winner Steve Bedrosian. The Kernels are 11-13 in the Midwest League's first half.

A crowd of 779. took in the twin-bill at Veterans Memorial Stadium, ending a forgettable month at the gate for the Kernels. The club averaged 900 fans in April, ahead of only Burlington and Beloit in the 16-team MWL.

The Kernels had 11 home dates (and one rainout), almost all of which featured especially cold and windy weather. General Manager Doug Nelson said the average temperature for the April games was actually warmer than a year ago, believe it or not.

That's a misleading statistic: 57.5 degrees to 56.5.

“We had promotions every one of the nights,” Nelson said. “We tried everything we could. But it's difficult to get people to come to the ballpark when it's 50 degrees. It's certainly disappointing to me, personally. But we do feel like we tried everything we could.”

Nelson said the only team in the league that doesn't mind playing a lot of April home games is Bowling Green. The southern-most city in the MWL prefers April home games to home games in August.

“The good thing is April is in the rear-view mirror,” Nelson said. “It only takes one really good series in June to make up for April.”

Here are copies of the game boxscores:

Scoreboard _ Cedar Rapids Kernels Scoreboard

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard