Kernels’ Schmit goes to DL after scary hit by pitch to head

CEDAR RAPIDS - His spirits were amazing high Thursday afternoon. It could have been worse, he figured.

Or perhaps it was the pain-killing medication Blake Schmit was taking. The Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder definitely looked like he came out on the wrong end of a battle with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball.

Schmit was knocked out of Wednesday night's game against the Great Lakes Loons after being hit in the head by a pitch from reliever Karch Kowalczyk. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with multiple facial fractures.

He assumes a concussion, too.

'I don't really know where it hit me specifically, to be honest,” Schmit said, while watching teammates take cuts in the Veterans Memorial Stadium indoor hitting cage. 'I thought it got a part of my earflap a little bit because it was pretty loud. I think it might have gotten part of my earflap and then my cheek because it's pretty swollen there. Maybe there and the temple area, I guess.”

Schmit sported a left-eye shiner and swollen left cheek. He never lost consciousness, though he's understandably a bit fuzzy on the details of exactly what happened.

'I had two strikes on me, so I was doing my best to just protect the plate,” he said. 'I was sitting on a fastball, maybe had breaking ball in the back of my mind. He came at me with a fastball. Usually you think you've got a shot to get out of the way, but he was throwing pretty hard. The pitch just came inside.

'It happened so fast. I thought I was all right for a second. Someone said I looked all right. But when I tried to get up, I got really dizzy and had to sit back down. They helped me off the field, and I took a trip to the hospital.”

The parent Minnesota Twins placed him on the seven-day disabled list, though he'll likely be out longer than that. A Twin Cities resident, he'll travel home in a couple of days and get checked out by Twins doctors.

Surgery is a possibility. It's a tough break, no pun intended, for a kid who joined the Kernels from extended spring training May 11 and has been playing pretty well.

He had a .226 batting average in 18 games, playing second base and shortstop. This was the seventh time he'd been hit by a pitch.

Talk about unlucky seven.

'I got hit in the head when I was younger, but I know it wasn't 96 back then,' he said. 'It happens, man. It's all good. Hopefully I'll be all right. Get down here and get playing again. I've been playing a lot, having fun, too. I love it here.”

Thursday night's game between Cedar Rapids and Great Lakes was postponed by rain. It will be made up as part of a double-header Friday afternoon at 5:30

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