Kyle Hess and Nick Lucky grew up playing on the same youth baseball teams in Pennsylvania. They went their separate ways for college but are together again, this time in affiliated professional ball with the Cedar Rapids Kernels
To say it’s been a meteoric rise this season through the Minnesota Twins system for pitcher Zebby Matthews is a massive understatement. He was with the Cedar Rapids Kernels for the first month of this season, got moved up to Double-A, then Triple-A and made his major league debut Tuesday night at home against the Kansas City Royals, getting the win.
Cedar Rapids Kernels relief pitcher Nolan Santos is from Florida, pitched high school, junior college and Division I college baseball in the state. He spent most of his first two professionals seasons in Florida, too, recently being promoted to C.R. The only other time he hasn’t pitched in his home state was the summer of 2021 when he also found himself in Iowa, with the collegiate Northwoods League’s Waterloo Bucks, who are owned by the Kernels.
Outfielder Walker Jenkins is considered to be the top prospect in the Minnesota Twins farm system, one of the top-five overall prospects in baseball. Injured in the very first game this season, the 19-year-old outfielder is healthy and seeking to make an impact with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
Noah Miller won a Minor League Baseball Gold Glove last year at shortstop as a member of the 2023 Midwest League champion Cedar Rapids Kernels. He returned to Veterans Memorial Stadium for the first time since the championship game Tuesday night ... as a member of the opposing Great Lakes Loons.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels beat the Great Lakes Loons 4-3 in a Midwest League baseball game Tuesday night.
Veterans Memorial Stadium has what the bigger schools’ Iowa high school state baseball tournaments need and in all the right sizes.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels went toe to toe with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in a short three-game weekend series at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Wisconsin, the team with the best record in the Midwest League, won two of three games, including Sunday, 5-3.
Cedar Rapids Kernels left-handed pitcher Gabriel Yanez has four wins, seven saves and a very low earned run average despite throwing a fastball that hits 90 miles per hour most times.
Here are some tidbits on the Cedar Rapids Kernels, who have gotten off to a 10-4 second-half start in the Midwest League and went into Saturday a season-high 16 games over .500 overall. Outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez went on the injured list in early May with a back injury but recently returned and has been swinging it well.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels beat the Quad City River Bandits 11-5 in a Midwest League baseball game at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids on Friday.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels beat Beloit, 7-3, Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium. That improved their home record for 29-11 this Midwest League season, a .725 win percentage that is the best in all of full-season minor league baseball.
Jeremy Lee’s first home start for the Cedar Rapids Kernels was a disaster earlier this month. He didn’t get anyone out and gave up seven runs. But he was brilliant Thursday night in out-pitching a first-round draft pick and getting the victory in a 4-1 win over Beloit. It was a boost for a rotation that has three of its members on the injured list.
Jose Salas of the Cedar Rapids Kernels was traded by the Miami Marlins to the Minnesota Twins in January 2023. He played part of the 2022 minor league baseball season with Beloit of the Midwest League and beat them Wednesday afternoon with a clutch eighth-inning hit in an 8-6 C.R. win.
It is a far, far better thing to play in the Midwest League than to have a tibial stress fracture or be stuck in a pandemic.
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