Baker, Baker, the victory maker

CEDAR RAPIDS - Textbook.

Get him on, get him over, get him in. That's what the Cedar Rapids Kernels did Tuesday night in the ninth inning.

Textbook.

That was the clutch at-bat Abel Baker provided to score the winning run in a 4-3 victory over Clinton before 530 nicely chilled fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

This was about as fundamental a winning finish as you can get.

Gary Mitchell worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch to start the ninth and was bunted into scoring position by Matt Scioscia. Clinton reliever Wes Alsup uncorked a fastball well high and wide of the plate and back to the screen to move Mitchell ahead to third.

Baker took the next pitch and drilled it at Alsup's feet and into center field. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

“Just kind of shorten up the swing and put it in play,” Baker said.

The catcher had a hit in his second at-bat last Thursday night at Wisconsin in the season opener but was 0 for his previous 12. Not that you could tell here.

“Some people tend to (press), but you try not to,” said Baker, whose grandfather, Jerry Mays, was a stalwart defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Texans back in the old American Football League. “I've been squaring balls up, but they've been getting caught. You've just got to stick with the same approach. When a situation like that comes up, you're locked in, you know you've got to get the job done. So you're not thinking about anything else.”

The Kernels have been thinking about nothing but winning the first week of the Midwest League season. They've won four of their first five, including the first two of this seven-game homestand.

The clubs complete their three-game series Wednesday night at 6:35 before Quad Cities comes in for four.

“Our pitching. The pitching has been awesome so far,” Baker said. “And we've been able to get key runs with key at-bats to support them.”

Starting pitcher Michael Johnson stranded the bases loaded in the first inning and allowed two runs in the second, but settled down after that to keep Cedar Rapids in the game. Frazier Hall's two-run home run in the sixth put the Kernels on top, 3-2, but Clinton tied it in the seventh on a two-out error.

Hall has homers in back-to-back games. Lay Batista didn't allow an earned run in four relief innings to pick up the victory.

Here is the game boxscore:

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard