Quad Cities gives Cedar Rapids Kernels another good shucking

CEDAR RAPIDS — More of the same.

The Quad Cities River Bandits continued to wreak their brand of havoc on the High-A Central League and the Cedar Rapids Kernels specifically Thursday night via an 8-2 win at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Bandits have a 54-25 record, a .684 win percentage that ranks them top four in all of Minor League Baseball. They’ve won seven consecutive games, including the first three of this six-game series.

In those wins, they have piled up 61 runs, not quite nine a game. They have guys who put the ball in play to all fields, battle with two strikes and drive it when they get their pitch.

Quad Cities leads the league in batting average, extra-base hits, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and has the fewest strikeouts. Pitching wise, it has shown off a number of good arms, including relief pitcher Will Klein, who threw a pair of fastballs the other night clocked at 101 miles per hour.

“They’re solid one through nine, their whole lineup is good,” said Kernels outfielder Matt Wallner. “They don’t strike out a ton throughout the lineup, they put balls in play hard. They have some decent arms, too, some lefties that other teams don’t have. They mix a lot and pitch backwards sometimes. They’re just a solid team, they’re impressive, they’re a good team.”

QC is 12-3 this season against the Kernels (44-37), who entered the night tied with Great Lakes for the second-best record in the Central. John Rave had a pair of home runs and drove in three in this game, with Seuly Matias adding a three-run homer.

Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Ben Gross came in with a 4-0 record and 2.48 earned run average but incurred all the damage that Rave and Matias wrought, plus another run in 4 1/3 innings.

“Their record indicates they’re a good team,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “They’re playing well against the whole league. We’ve just got to find a way tomorrow to come out and play a good game. Not give them free bases, extra outs, things like that. Give ourselves a chance.”

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