Hall helps Kernels on, off the field ... especially 'on' Sunday

CEDAR RAPIDS - Frazier Hall does really well off the baseball field. He wasn't too bad on it Sunday afternoon.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels first baseman had four hits, including a walk-off double, as his team beat Quad Cities in the first game of a long double-header at Veterans Memorial Stadium, 11-10, in nine innings. The River Bandits came back to salvage a split, 8-7.

Hall had a double and flew to the wall in right field as the penultimate batter in that game. The cleanup hitter has regrouped after a tough go through most of May.

“One of the things, really, is just sticking to it,” said Hall, whose batting average jumped 15 points to .258. “When (the season) first started, I was hitting well, things were going good, things were falling my way. Then I just ran into a rough spot. That happens in baseball ... It's just staying with things on a constant basis.”

Frazier Hall

Which Hall always has done away from the diamond. The Louisiana native was a Lowe's Senior Class Award winner last year at Southern University for his “classroom work, exemplary character and leadership,” was a fan favorite when he played for the Waterloo Bucks collegiate summer league team in 2009 and never turns down off-field requests from the Kernels.

For instance, he hung around well after a recent noon game to tape a television commercial for a Special Olympics promotion. It's just who he is.

“He's unbeliveable,” said Kernels Manager Jamie Burke. “He'd do anything in the world for anybody. He's always concerned about someone else before he's concerned about himself. Just that type of guy, an all-American kid. You can tip your hat to his family for raising him.”

Hall said he enjoyed his first go-around in Iowa.

“It was good. I definitely remembered the weather,” he said with his usual smile. “A little bit of humidity, just like we have down South. It's good to be back.”

The Kernels (23-27) rallied from holes of 6-1 and 8-2 to win the extra-inning opener. Andy Workman's RBI single tied it in the seventh, then Hall scored Kevin Moequit with a ringing double to the gap with one out in the ninth.

Kaleb Cowart, Chevy Clarke and Wendell Soto all homered in the fourth inning of the second game for a 5-1 Kernels lead, but Quad Cities turned the tables with two runs in the seventh. The double-header featured 36 runs, 49 hits and 11 errors.

“Both sides were back and forth all day,” Burke said. “We got some good hits, some clutch hits. They took advantage of some of our mistakes, we took advantage of some of their mistakes. It was just a matter of who was going to make the last mistake, especially in that last game.” ---- The teams play again on Memorial Day at 2:05.

Here are the game boxscores:

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard