Stewart learns lesson

CEDAR RAPIDS – A player got kicked out of the game Thursday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Don't worry, Minnesota Twins fans, because it wasn't Kohl Stewart this time.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher was a model citizen in his team's 4-3 win over Lake County, and he insists he'll stay that way.

You might recall the 19-year-old first-rounder's previous start here two weeks ago ended abruptly in the third inning when he went off on the home-plate umpire about a fair-ball call on a grounder past third base. It was a hard lesson learned for a kid who chose baseball over football and still has a lot of that gridiron mentality.

By the way, Lake County's Paul Hendrix was the guy kicked out here, arguing a check-swing call.

'I've got to learn to control that and channel it into the game,” said Stewart, who threw five shutout innings to help the Kernels win for the seventh time in eight games. 'I don't want to show emotion on the mound. In football, being in the grind, I was running my mouth a lot. There was always a lot of talk going on. But it's not like that in baseball. I think these last two starts, I've done a lot better job of not letting anybody know how I'm feeling.”

Stewart (3-5) has won the two starts since his ejection, giving up just one run over 11 innings. He remains on a tight pitch count, throwing just 67 pitches Thursday, and that's not going to change.

It's why he has only three victories, not a true indication of the way the 2013 fourth-overall pick's first full professional season has gone. His earned run average has dipped to 2.42 and he has held opponents to a .230 batting average.

The kid is good.

'My goal, I guess you could say, is to just kind of (make sure) no one knows how I'm feeling. Just pick up the baseball and make the next pitch,” Stewart said. 'As hard as it is to say, I think (the ejection) needed to happen. I deserved to get kicked out of the game. He threw me out, and I had to sit there and own it. Man up. It won't happen again, that's for sure.”

'You lose perspective on the big picture sometimes,” Kernels Manager Jake Mauer said. 'That's part of being young, part of maturing. Kohl is an emotional kid, plays with a lot of passion, a lot of fire. We don't want to take that away from him. That's part of what makes him who he is. But we've got to be able to channel it into our pitching and not have it melt down when things don't go our way.”

Stewart gave up just four singles, didn't walk anyone and struck out three. His fastball reached a high of 96 miles per hour, which means he's still relatively fresh.

'I think my body is ready for (longer starts), but it's not up to me,” he said. 'My job is to start the game, and whenever Jake shakes my hand, that's it. I'm not going to waste my time getting pissed about it.”

Jared Wilson, Hudson Boyd and Nick Burdi finished up, though it got hairy at the end. Burdi got the first two outs of the ninth inning but walked two and gave up two hits, saved when Lake County's Jorge Martinez rounded second base too far on Ivan Castillo's single to left and was thrown out by left-field Jon Murphy.

The Kernels (44-52, 13-13) climbed back to the break-even mark in the Midwest League's second half, getting three hits from Jason Kanzler and a two-run single from Alex Swim. The teams conclude their three-game series Friday night at 6:35.

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