Cedar Rapids Kernels score 4 times in bottom of 9th to stun Quad Cities, 7-6

CEDAR RAPIDS — Give 'em a finish, boys.

It was a great one the Cedar Rapids Kernels put together Sunday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Joe Cronin's two-run single up the middle capped a four-run bottom of the ninth inning as the Kernels came from nowhere to beat Quad Cities, 7-6.

Cedar Rapids scored three times in the top of the first, then didn't do a thing until crunch time. Only one hit and three baserunners in that span, to be specific.

Out of nowhere, the Kernels suddenly came to life offensively. They never even made a ninth-inning out.

'Everybody in the ninth inning had a good at-bat,' said Manager Tommy Watkins. 'Man, that was pretty good.'

Jimmy Kerrigan singled up the middle to begin the rally and went to third when Lewin Diaz lined a single into right field. He'd fallen behind in the count 0-2, but had worked it back to full.

Caleb Hamilton also got down two strikes to new Q.C. reliever Salvador Montano (5-3) but battled and battled before drawing a walk to load them up. Shane Carrier singled into right-center to score a run, and it was a 6-4 game.

Trey Cabbage immediately got behind Montano but fought and fought and eventually drew a walk to score another run.

'Jimmy starts off with a single, then it's a bunch of good two-strike at-bats,' Cronin said. 'Hamilton fouls off multiple 3-2 pitches and gets the walk. Trey got down 0-2, came back and got the walk. Just great at-bats all the way through. Probably the best collective inning we've had in a couple of weeks. Just battling. That kid was pretty good, but he just couldn't put us away because no one gave it up. That was fun.'

Cronin didn't wait around, picking on the first pitch he saw from Montano and lining it into center field. Watkins nearly tore his rotator cuff excitedly waiving pinch runner Christian Cavaness around from second.

He slid home safely to set off quite the celebration.

'He wasn't throwing his breaking ball for a strike,' Cronin said. 'Dink (hitting coach Brian Dinkelman) said right before I went up there to just eliminate the breaking ball, that he was probably going to bring a heater. I was ready for it.'

Patrick McGuff (2-2) got the vulture win in relief, with he and Evan Sanders combining for six shutout bullpen innings. The Kernels head to Burlington for a series after cooling off what had been the Midwest League's hottest team.

Quad Cities took the opener of this four-game series to extend its winning streak to nine. The Kernels (62-57, 23-26) won the next three.

'Hopefully this gives us a little bit of momentum going down the stretch here,' Watkins said.

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