Burlington ends season for Kernels, 2-1

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids Kernels wouldn't use the “F” word. They wouldn't go that far.

It was apparently up to the 1,033 fans at Memorial Stadium last night to do that.

We're talking about “frustrating,” by the way. A season-ending 2-1 loss to Burlington in the deciding Game 3 of the Midwest League Western Division championship series sure seemed every bit of that.

You give up only four hits, leave 11 guys on base. You go 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Yeah, maybe “frustrating” isn't the right “F” word in this case.

“Frustrating, to me, would be if you didn't get bunts down, you played bad defense, you didn't pitch,” said Kernels Manager Bill Mosiello. “That would be frustrating. This is unfortunate because we didn't get the big hit. Frustrating is when you play bad baseball ... Except for not getting big hits, we played about as well as you could play.”

Mosiello does have a point. The Kernels made no errors and got a great pitching performance from starter Will Smith.

The big lefty went eight innings and struck out nine. He gave up just three hits. Unfortunately, two of them came back-to-back in the first inning: a two-out broken-bat single to center by David Wood and a long home run on a 1-1 changeup over the porch in left to Jason Taylor.

“We had the scouting report on them,” Smith said. “We knew what we were going to do to them. It just sucks to get beat on your third best pitch. We fought hard the whole game. To get beat, 2-1, of course it's disappointing. But we can't be mad at ourselves about that. That's just the way it is.”

“To tell you the truth, I didn't think they'd score off of him,” Mosiello said. “One pitch was the difference. One guy (Taylor) that can beat you.”

Oh, the scoring chances the Kernels had against three Burlington lefties: starter Ivor Hodgson and relievers Brendan Lafferty and Blaine Hardy. They had runners at first and second in the second, at first and third in the fourth and the bases loaded in the sixth. Not once were they retired in order.

But they left eight guys in scoring position. One hit would have changed the game, but the Kernels never got it.

“Frustrating? I don't know,” said outfielder Tyson Auer, who had three of his team's eight hits. “This was just the one that really counted, more so than anything else, you know?. I guess that's what's frustrating.”

"That team is just like our team,” said Burlington Manager Jim Gabella. “You know you're not safe until you've got the 27th out. They scrap, the battle, and you know no lead is safe until you've got it. Only then can you relax.”

Defending champ Burlington is in the MWL championship series for a second year in a row, facing regular-season 94-game winner Fort Wayne in a best-of-5 that begins tonight in Indiana. Including the playoffs, the Kernels went 81-62.

Not a bad season, but not quite good enough. Cedar Rapids still hasn't been to the MWL finals since 1994.

“It's just tough to go home and say goodbye to all your teammates,” Auer said.