Quad City River Bandits at Cedar Rapids Kernels
April 26th, 2004
| Quad City |
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2 |
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0 |
1 |
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0 |
0 |
1 |
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0 |
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4 |
6 |
1 |
| Cedar Rapids |
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1 |
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1 |
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1 |
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5 |
9 |
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E-Wilson, LOB QC-6, CR-6, 2B-Spataro, Wood, HR-Whitrock (Zimmermann/Solo/9th), Rodriguez (Simmonitsch/Solo/6th), Cosby (Simonitsch/Solo/1st), SACF-Rutgers, SB-Span, Garcia, Zamojc, Spataro, Balkcom, CS-Span, Cosby, Wilson
HB-Zamojc (Jepsen), BB-Zamocj, Spataro, Cosby
T-2:57, A-1,354
U-Tyler Funneman, Scott Jarrad
Cedar Rapids Gazette
by Jeff Johnson
call if fortuitous if you want. Call if just downright lucky.
But the Cedar Rapids Kernels 5-4 extra inning win last night at Memorial Stadium over the Quad Cities River Bandits mayhave been a case of divine intervention instead. At least that's what Kernels infielder Sean Rodriguez figuered.
"God wanted us to win today." said Rodriguez, who scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning on a one out Brandon Wood single.
God aided or not, the Kernels (11-7) jumped into first place by themselves in the Western Divison of the Midwest League. They did it with the help of a bad hop and a good deflection.
Cedar Rapids rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, the tying run scoring on Matt Brown's two out wicked hop single past third. Then with runners on first and second with one out in the 10th. Wood hit a medium speed grounder against losing pitcher Jon Uhl (0-1) through the shortstop hole.
Diving Bandits shortstop J.R. Raylor actually got his glove on the ball, ricocheting it away from hard charging left fielder Ryan Spartaro and allowing Rodriguez to score without a play.
"I was just looking for a fastball to hit," said WOod, whose double set up the Kernels' big ninth inning. "I didn't hit it hard, the ball just had eyes. That's ok, though. You take a win when you can get it."
"That's just how we are, that's how we play." said Rodriguez, who began the 10th inning rally with a one out single. "It would be nice if we could start off games like that and then keep it going. But we're the type of team where you can't knock us out. Even if we're down five or 10 runs, we're not going to quit."
Kernels manager Bobby Magallanes was as happy as his players about the come from behind win. He just wishes his guys would have the same quality of at bats in earlier innings as they did in the final two last night.
The Kernels are averaging 10 strikeouts a game and were limited by Quad Cities starting pitcher Errol Simonitsch to three hits and two runs over the first seven innings.
Peter Tautor relived Simonitsch and pitched a scoreless eighth but ran into immeditate trouble in the ninth when Quan Cosby reached on a leadoff infield single and Wood followed with a double to right center, off the glove of diving center fielder Denard Span.
Matt Pali had a great at bat next, hitting a groundball to second that scored Cosby and moved Wood to third. After a Blake Balkcom grounder to third with the infield in. Brown hit a two strike hard grounder that Bandits third baseman Paul Rutgers laid back on.
The ball hit the dirst in front of Rutgers and jetted past his ear and into left.
"These kinds of wins are gold, but I don't want too many like this." Magallanes said. "Our guys compete, We've said that so many times this season. But I really want to see better concentration at the plate earlier in the game."
"These guys are too good."
Bob Zimmerman (2-1) got the win in relief. Starter Kevin Jepsen went the first five innings, allowing three hits and three runs (two earned). Von Sterzbach threw three shutout relief innings in front of Zimermann who pitched the ninth and tenth.
How They Scored
Bottom 1st
Quan Cosby hit a one out solo home run to right
Top 2nd
Mark Zamojc walked leading off. Ryan Spataro walked with one out. Zamojc and Spataro then exucated a double steal with Zamojc scoring and Spataro going to third on a throwing error on catcher Bobby Wilson. Spataro scored on an ensuing error by Paul Rutgers sacrifice fly to center.
Top 5th
Spataro doubled down the third base line leading off, went to third on a Rutgers single and scored on an Alex Garcia fielder's choice one out ground out.
Bottom 6th
Sean Rodriguez hit a solo homer to left
Top 9th
Scott Whitrock hit a leadoff homer to right center
Bottom 9th
Cosby reached on a leadoff infield single, then Brandon Wood doubled to right center. A Matt Pali groundout scored Cosby and sent Wood to third. Wood scored on Matt Brown's two out bad hop single past third
Bottom 10th
Rodriguez singled through the shortstop hole with one out. Cosby then walked and Wood hit an RBI single through the shortstop hole to score Rodriguez