C.R. Kernels infielder Payton Eeles is smaller guy with big game

CEDAR RAPIDS — His is more of a small-ball game. Which kind of figures since he’s a smaller guy.

Payton Eeles is the newest member of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and the infielder checks in height wise at 5-foot-7. He’s among the shortest players in the minor leagues.

But the fact that he’s in the affiliated minor leagues, that’s the biggest thing, no pun intended. It’s the only thing he ever wanted.

A chance.

“I’m not like most guys here,” Eeles said Wednesday afternoon after the Kernels were blanked by Peoria, 7-0, before 3,259 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I didn’t spend three years in college or come out of high school. I was in college for five and didn’t even get drafted after those five. But I always still believed that I could make it.”

This kid’s route to “making it” is rather something.

From Acwarth, Ga., the only athletics scholarship interest came from Cedarville University, a Baptist-based NCAA Division II school in Ohio. The only reason Cedarville caught onto him was because the pastor at his church was in a Bible study group with Cedarville’s coach.

After four years of hitting, hitting and then hitting some more, Eeles played a super senior fifth year of college baseball at D-I Coastal Carolina. The only reason that came about was because a local Chicago White Sox scout, who randomly was at Eeles’ high school, saw him working out and passed on word about him to some schools.

“If he hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened,” Eeles said.

He hit .374 in 63 games last season for the Chanticleers, with more walks than strikeouts and 42 stolen bases. But he was an older player, more of a line-drive, speed type of guy in a game infatuated by the home run and got passed over in last year’s 20-round Major League Baseball Draft.

“But I didn’t let it stop me,” he said. “I kept going.”

Eeles played independent baseball last summer following his college career, for the Chicago Dogs of the American Association, where his manager was former major-league player and skipper Butch Hobson.

“From day one, he was my biggest believer,” Eeles said.

He signed this season with the independent South Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League, had a great first week and was offered a contract by the Minnesota Twins in early May. He hit .331 with 13 stolen bases in 34 games for low-Class A Fort Myers and was promoted to the high-A Midwest League on Monday.

Eeles made his C.R. debut Tuesday, tripling in his first at-bat and reaching base in three of his four plate appearances, also stealing a base. He had three singles Wednesday, two of the infield variety.

Not too shabby of a start.

“Affiliated ball is awesome,” he said. “I dreamed about it since I was a kid, have always wanted to play for an MLB team. It’s been just a blessing to be here.”

And he’s not about to apologize for the way he plays. Nor should he.

“I don’t really try to do anything different than what I’ve been doing,” Eeles said. “A lot of people, since they are moving up, feel like they’ve got to do more and more and more. But I don’t really try to change anything. I still use my two-strike mode, I still hit for contact, I still try to take extra bases whenever I can. For me, I just can’t try to do anything special. I just kind of let it happen, try to be who I am. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.”

The penultimate game of the first half was not a good one for the Kernels (37-27). Obviously they didn’t do much offensively and allowed 14 hits

Wisconsin has clinched the first-half championship in the Western Division, with the Kernels assured a second-place finish. Lake County has won the Eastern Division.

After Thursday night’s games in the league, everything resets for the second half, which begins Friday night.

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