Kernels rally in 9th for 6th straight victory

CEDAR RAPIDS - He had a game on the road last week where he hit two home runs. He tripled into the gap in his first at-bat Monday night.

Let's just say Mitch Garver has been hitting the ball with authority lately. An OPS (on base-plus slugging percentage) that's over 1.0 and ranks in the top five of the Midwest League doesn't lie.

Yet it was a crummy little nubber off the end of his bat in the bottom of the ninth inning that sent a cold bunch of Cedar Rapids Kernels and their fans home happy. An infield single with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning capped a three-run rally that gave the Men of Corn a 5-4 win over South Bend at Memorial Stadium.

It's the sixth win in a row for Cedar Rapids (8-3).

'I think everyone is starting to get really comfortable,” Garver said. 'I've been really comfortable with these guys, and I think we're starting to mold together.”

A bases-loaded walk to Zack Larson tied the game and gave Garver a chance to be the hero. He anhiliated a 2-1 pitch from losing reliever Daniel Gibson (0-2) well into the chilly night and ◄ that went well foul down the left-field line, worked a full count, then made just enough contact to bounce one off Gibson and slowly to the shortstop, who had no play.

'At that point, I was just trying to put the ball in play,” he said. 'Anything can happen in this cold weather. My swing has been feeling pretty good, so if I put it in play there, I thought good things would happen.”

'He's been taking professional at-bats,” Kernels Manager Jake Mauer said. 'He's got a pretty good feel for hitting. He knows where the barrel (of the bat) is. He's going to anchor that middle of the lineup for us. Even that last at-bat, he competed and battled. The guy threw him a changeup, and he didn't swing through it. He just put it in play and won the game.”

The Kernels fell behind, 4-1, after four innings but kept playing on a night it would have easy not to. Michael Quesada's RBI single in the sixth made it a 4-2 game, then Joel Licon and pinch-hitter Logan Wade reached leading off the ninth.

Newcomer Jason Kanzler and Tanner Vavra followed with identical singles the other way through the right side to make it 4-3 and bring Larson to the plate. You know the rest.

'One of the things about this team that i've been happy with is they don't roll over,” Mauer said. 'They go out and compete.”

Hudson Boyd (2-0) picked up the vulture pitching win. He and Brandon Bixler combined for four hitless, scoreless innings in relief of starter Aaron Slegers.

The teams play again Tuesday night at 6:35. There were 2,021 tickets sold to Monday night's game, though the actual in-house crowd was significantly less, as you'd imagine on a night that ended with a temperature of 35 degrees.

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