Lopez homers to put Kernels in 1st-place tie

Roberto Lopez ended a streak of grand futility in grand style Tuesday night.

Lopez homered with two outs in the 14th inning to give his Cedar Rapids Kernels a 7-6 win over Kane County, jumping the Men of Corn into a first-place tie with the Cougars in the Midwest League's Western Division.

There are five games left in the first half, including the final of this critical four-game series Wednesday at noon.

“We battled,” said Lopez, who turned on a 2-2 inside fastball from losing pitcher Scott Deal (0-2) and cleared the short porch in left field. “Fourteen innings, a really long game. Then to have them leave the field (a loser), that's definitely a momentum builder there.”

Now about that aforementioned streak. Lopez' long ball was just the sixth for the Kernels at home this season and their first since May 4, a string of 16 games. Cedar Rapids is second-to-last in the league with 27 homers.

Quite the irony then that this 4-hour, 19-minute marathon was ended by a team that's the epitome of small ball playing long ball. The game started 39 minutes late because of the threat of rain that never came.

“May 4th, is that what it was?” Kernels Manager Bill Mosiello said, when informed of his team's home homer-less streak. “There was never a better time to break it than that one.”

Clinton lost Tuesday night, meaning the Kernels and Kane County (38-27) are a game up on the LumberKings. The top two teams in the division clinch playoff spots.

The Kernels appeared to have this one won, taking a 6-5 lead into the ninth, but closer Mike Kohn blew a save for the sixth time in 10 games, walking in the tying run with one out. Kohn walked three in the inning and gave up a key pinch-hit single to Dusty Napoleon, the former University of Iowa player.

Kohn did do a nice job of preventing the go-ahead run from scoring, striking out the Cougars' third and fourth hitters, Dusty Coleman and Steve Kleen to end the inning.

Both teams left runners in scoring position in the extra innings. The Kernels had runners on the corners with two outs in both the 11th and 12th but couldn't score. In fact, Alexi Amarista doubled leading off the 12th but Lopez popped out on the infield as the next hitter, and Amarista didn't even get to third until their were two outs.

“He made up for it in a big way,” Mosiello said of Lopez.

Sidearming right-hander Nick Pugliese (1-0), who just joined the club a couple of days ago, picked up the win in relief for the Kernels. He went 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and no runs. In fact, Kernels pitchers allowed just three hits in the final 11 innings of the game.

Kane County scored twice in the first against Kernels starter Manuel Flores, including a Jason Christian leadoff homer, but the Kernels came right back with a five spot in the bottom of the inning. The uprising was culminated by Matt Crawford's bases-loaded triple into the right-field corner.

Flores couldn't hold the lead, however, as Kane County nicked him for two more runs in the second and one in the third. Just when it appeared he would have an early night, however, the left-hander settled down and settled in, retiring the final 12 hitters he faced.

In fact, Flores and reliever Andrew Taylor combined to set down 18 straight guys headed into the ninth. Cedar Rapids took a 6-5 lead with a run in the third, with Crawford reaching on a two-out bunt single, going to second on an errant pickoff throw and scoring on Adam Younger's single to center.

Kane County starter Shawn Haviland, who was nicked for eight hits and six runs in five innings, has a degree from Harvard in government studies.