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MWL1 Cedar Rapids Kernels

Largest crowd of the season sees slugfest

July 13, 2005 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Cedar Rapids Kernels News Release


July 13, 2005 - Drew Toussaint hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season for the Kernels on Wednesday night in front of the largest crowd of the season but the Clinton Lumber Kings could not be stopped en route to an 11-5 victory at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

A crowd of 5,106 fans watched as the Lumber Kings scored three runs in the second and four more in the third to take an early 7-2 lead.

The Kernels scored single runs in the first on a single by Michael Colllins and in the second Jordan Renz came home on a base hit by Alexi Casilla. However Clinton countered with its pair of big innings beginning with the second when the Lumber Kings benefited from a two-run triple by catcher Craig Hurba. Hurba scored on a single by Billy Susdorf.

In the third the Lumber Kings bounced Kernel starter Joe Torres after the erratic lefty walked three men and uncorked a wild pitch. With one out, Jim Fasano slapped a grounder to right that plated two runs and moved another runner to third. After Nick Green entered the game in relief of Torres things looked like they'd end calmly. That wasn't the case as Green got Hurba to pop out to Freddy Sandoval in foul ground for the second out then appeared to escape the inning without further damage being done when Susdorf hit a weak grounder to the left side of the infield. Instead of being put out at first, Susdorf was safe and Emerson Frostad scored as Michael Collins dropped a perfectly thrown ball to first which would have ended the inning. Casey Benjamin then hit a single that plated Jim Fasano.

The Kernels would score once in the fourth after Richard Giannotti led off the inning with a base hit and moved to second when Nate Sutton walked. Jordan Renz then blasted a double to center to plate Giannotti and put Sutton at third, but with no outs and two runners in scoring position the Kernels went 1-2-3.

Clinton scored two in the sixth and single runs in the seventh and eighth to salt the game away. Both runs in the sixth came on solo homers by Susdorf and Brandon Cashman that combined to give the visiting team a 9-3 advantage.

Toussaint gave the Kernels their final two runs in the bottom of the seventh after Sean Rodriguez began the inning with a walk. Two batters later Toussaint belted a ball high into the Cedar Rapids sky for his 13th jack of the year.

The two teams combined for 20 hits with Cedar Rapids collecting 9. Toussaint and Renz each had two hits with Renz going 2-for-3 with a run scored and one batted in. Toussaint was 2-for-4.

Clinton's Kyle Rogers earned his fourth victory of the season to go against six defeats. He surrendered seven hits over his five innings of work and allowed three Kernel runs. Torres fell to 1-4 and lasted just 2 1/3 innings while giving up seven runs (five earned) on four hits and five free passes. He struck out one and issued two wild pitches.

The loss was the team's fourth in a row after an impressive six game winning streak was stopped at Quad City on Saturday night. Twenty games into the second half of play the Kernels own an 11-9 record.

Game two of the three game series will be played in Cedar Rapids on Thursday at 7 p.m. with gates opening at 6 p.m. It will be another Z102.9 Meet the DJ's Happy Hour where fans can come to the stadium at 5 p.m. and pay $10.00 for a plaza ticket, a slice of pizza, one soda or beer, and free popcorn until 6:30 p.m. In addition there will be great specials on Leinenkugel's beer products throughout the game.

Check out the Cedar Rapids Kernels Statistics



Midwest League Stories from July 13, 2005


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