Kernels rally to crown LumberKings

Maybe the Cedar Rapids Kernels found the secret to beating the mighty Clinton LumberKings.

Just hang in there against their awesome starting pitchers. Once they leave the game, go to work.

That's exactly what happened last night at Memorial Stadium, as the Kernels battered the Clinton bullpen, scoring seven times in their final three at-bats to rally for an 8-4 win before 1,172 fans on a beautiful spring night.

"Their starters are good," said Kernels Manager Bill Mosiello. "Just like all pitchers, you try to be patient and work counts and get that starter out of there."

Cedar Rapids (8-5) has won two of the first three games of this four-game series, with the finale tonight at 6:35. It's another guy with gaudy numbers the Kernels will face in Aaron Pribanic (2-0, 0.71 earned run average in two starts).

They ought to be used to it by now, though, considering they faced a guy Wednesday night who's 3-0 and hasn't given up an earned run, yet, this season  (Steven Hensley). Last night, they faced a guy with a 2-0 record, 1.50 ERA and no walks and five hits allowed in 12 innings (Brett Lorin).

All they got was two hits and an unearned run against Lorin, a 6-foot-7 right-hander in five innings. But they did walk three times and elevated his pitch count enough to get him out of there after five innings.

Then it was tee off time against three L-Kings relievers.

"Those guys (starters) all have a good breaking ball, and we've been chasing a lot of them," Mosiello said. "Making it easier on them. They need to earn that, though they do a good job. Their bullpen's a little suspect, but their starters are really good. You've got to try and survive, stay in the game when the starter's in there, then go from there."

"That's always the goal," said Cedar Rapids' Gabe Jacobo, who had two of his team's eight hits. "You're always trying to get the pitch count up, get to the bullpen. Especially if the guy is doing well, like (Lorin)."

Cedar Rapids took the lead for good, 5-2, with four runs in the sixth. The rally was culminated by a three-run home run to left-center by Angel Castillo, who took a 3-2 pitch from losing reliever Bobby LaFromboise (0-1) way out of the park.

Castillo has two of his team's five home runs in the early going and has raised his batting average to .289 by going 5-for-10 with two walks thus far in the series.

"There was a man on second there, so I thought he would throw me a curveball," Castillo said. "But I'm always ready for the fastball, and that's what he threw."

Clinton (8-4) closed within 5-4, but the Kernels got three big two-out insurance runs in the eighth. Darwin Perez and Tyson Auer had RBI singles.

Kernels starting pitcher Manuarys Correa (1-1) struggled early, giving up two first-inning runs and pitching out of trouble in the second and third. But he settled down after that, not giving up a hit until tiring in the seventh.

Reliever Mike Kohn stranded the tying run at first in the seventh, striking out three of the four batters he faced. Jeremy Thorne finished up in the ninth.

This was not the cleanest of ballgames, as the teams combined for seven errors that made five of the 13 runs unearned.