Kernels finally return home, lose to Kane County, 5-3

CEDAR RAPIDS - Groundhog Day finally came to an end for the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

For a week straight, they commuted to games at Burlington and Quad Cities. That's seven consecutive days of getting home a little before midnight, grabbing a bite to eat, heading to bed, waking up, going back to the ballpark and hopping on a bus.

This monotonous routine came after four straight games at Wisconsin. It was a road-weary bunch that lost a long-awaited home game Wednesday night to Kane County, 5-3.

“We were thinking about that today,” said Kernels outfielder Andy Workman. “It's been so long since we've played a game here.”

The Kernels (17-22) have played more road games than any other team in the Midwest League's Western Division (22), one less than league-leader Great Lakes. They've been to Bowling Green, Ky., and Dayton, Ohio, and made two trips to Appleton, Wis., the longest inter-division travel they have.

There are absolutely no excuses in professional baseball, but there's no question the schedule the first month and a half of the season has been extremely difficult for this ballclub. Quite the grind.

“I definitely can feel that,” said Kernels first baseman Frazier Hall. “We have definitely been on the road a lot. I guess sometimes you kind of get used to it. You get into kind of a fog or haze where you just repeat your motions every single day. You wake up whatever city you are in, hop on a bus, get here, go there, do this, do that.”

Manager Jamie Burke won't ever let his guys slide because of travel. He played a lot of games in Triple-A, where they play one night someplace, then have to be at the airport by 4 a.m. the next morning to make a commuter flight to another city.

But even he admitted it feels like Cedar Rapids has played a lot of baseball games not in Cedar Rapids.

“It does seem like it,” he said. “Like today, I was getting ready to put on my whites (uniforms) and it was weird. Because we were in grays for 11 straight days.”

Kane County (22-18) rallied for four runs against starting pitcher Michael Clevinger (1-1) in the sixth inning to win. Jorge Bonifacio's two-run home run was the big hit.

Hall had two knocks, including a homer for the Kernels. Ryan Jones also had two hits, including a triple.

The Kernels announced Wednesday the rainout of Tuesday night's game at Quad Cities will be made up as part of a double-header Sunday, May 27 at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The teams are not scheduled to play the remainder of the first half in Davenport, thus the need to play two in Cedar Rapids. The first game will begin at 2:05 p.m.

Here is a copy of the game boxscore:

Scoreboard _ Midwest League Scoreboard