Alex Isola’s walk-off homer gives Cedar Rapids Kernels extra-inning win over Wisconsin

CEDAR RAPIDS — Alex Isola tried to go to the right side. Tried to do the right thing.

But when he got behind in the count a couple of strikes, the Cedar Rapids Kernels catcher-first baseman had to let that hitting approach go and just battle. Thus he ended up hitting the baseball to the left side of the diamond instead, which turned out to be the winning side.

Isola’s two-run home run to left field with none out in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the Kernels to a 4-2 win over Wisconsin before 1,813 fans Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Cedar Rapids (50-41) held on to second place overall by a game in the High-A Central League and the postseason berth that goes with it. There are 29 games left in the regular season, including five more here against Wisconsin.

“You pay attention a little bit (to other scores) here and there,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “Only four weeks left, four more series after this one. You get down here toward the end, there’s still a lot of baseball left, but we know we’re in the hunt for it.”

Winning relief pitcher Breckin Williams stranded the go-ahead run at third base in the top of the 10th inning for the Kernels. Matt Wallner began at second in the bottom half.

Wisconsin reliever Harold Chirino immediately got ahead of Isola, who took a strike, fouled two off, then smoked a fourth-straight Chirino slider to win it.

“They’d been working me outside pretty much the whole game,” Isola said. “So I just wanted to put a good swing on one. I was looking slider that whole at-bat because with a runner in scoring position, I felt like he was going to go with that pitch. I fell behind, he made some good pitches early in the count. I don’t even know where the last one was, but I was able to get a good swing on it.”

Isola has had a nice season for the Kernels, increasing his batting average each month. He is at .314 here in August and had three hits in this game.

“One thing we’ve focused on this year in all aspects of my game is just trying to improve every day,” he said. “This game is really tough. Early in the year, I felt like the most important thing was I didn’t panic. The results weren’t there right away, but I trusted the process … I’m still not there in my mind, but I think it’s one of those things I don’t pay attention to much. You are definitely more aware when you are struggling, I’ll say. You see it on the scoreboard. But I’ve stayed with the motto of, whether it’s catching or hitting, how can we get 1-percent better each day.”

Starter Ben Gross, Melvi Acosta, Zach Featherstone and Williams combined on a two-hitter here, striking out 14. The teams play again Wednesday night at 6:35.

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