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* Contact Metro Sports Report * Jim Ecker, President & Editor jim.ecker@metrosportsreport.com 319-390-4236 |
Some players lead their team in home runs, wins and saves when they are in Little League or high school, but Keaton Steele accomplished the rare trifecta when he was a junior at the University of Missouri in 2013.
In fact, he was the only Division I college baseball player in the country that year to perform that particular triple crown.
"I was fortunate to be able to hit and pitch in college," he said Friday night.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels had been manhandling the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers this season, racking up an 8-0 record and outscoring the Rattlers 53-17 coming into their series finale Thursday night in Cedar Rapids.
That dominance came to an abrupt end as a “Thirsty Thursday” crowd of 1,957, along with former Major League closer Lee Smith, watched the Rattlers end the Kernels' four-game winning streak with a convincing 6-0 win at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Smith, a seven-time big league All-Star, was in attendance to sign autographs for fans before and during the game.
Jared Wilson (4-1) has been a warrior in the Cedar Rapids rotation, giving his team at least five innings in all seven of his starts and accumulating a 4-0 record.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels and Minnesota Twins announced Thursday that pitcher John Curtiss and infielder/outfielder Trey Vavra have been place on the 7-Day Disabled List.
Curtiss has a right forearm strain. Vavra has a sprained left ankle.
Pitcher Sam Gibbons has joined the Kernels from Extended Spring Training to replace Curtiss.
The Twins signed Gibbons as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2011. He spent last season with Elizabethton, posting a 4-5 record and 3.88 ERA in 12 starts.
Curtiss has made seven starts for the Kernels, posting a 2-3 record and 5.87 ERA. He left Monday's game at Beloit in the fifth inning.
Vavra has played in 42 games, batting .342 with six homers and 28 RBIs. He's among the MWL leaders in average, hits and slugging percentage. He sprained his ankle chasing a foul ball during Tuesday's 4-1 win over Wisconsin.
With two of the best starting pitchers in the Midwest League facing off Wednesday night, the 2,237 fans who showed up to watch the Kernels take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers had every right to expect a pitchers’ duel.
That didn’t exactly happen, though, as the Kernels topped the visitors 7-3 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Cedar Rapids starter Felix Jorge (3-2) entered Wednesday with the MWL's 10th best earned run average at 2.13. He did not have nearly his best night on the mound, but he limited Wisconsin to three runs on five hits over six innings.
It was the seventh time in eight starts that Jorge has given the Kernels at least six innings of mound work.
Jorge certainly out-dueled his Wisconsin counterpart, Cy Sneed, who held the seventh best ERA mark in the league at 1.81 entering the night. Sneed gave up four runs in just four innings before being pulled.
It’s hard to imagine what more Cedar Rapids Kernels starting pitcher Stephen Gonsalves has to do to convince his bosses with the Minnesota Twins that he’s earned a promotion up the organizational ladder.
Gonsalves entered Tuesday night’s game with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with an Earned Run Average of 1.50 and he led the Midwest League with 54 strikeouts while allowing opposing hitters a .168 batting average.
With his performance Tuesday, Gonsalves actually improved in all three of those categories.
Gonsalves allowed just a single unearned run on three hits over six innings, while striking out 12 Rattler batters,and leading the Kernels to a 4-1 win in front of 1,081 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Cedar Rapids Kernels' catcher Brian Navarreto has been activated from the 7-day disabled list and catcher Rainis Silva has been assigned to Extended Spring Training by the Minnesota Twins.
Navarreto went on the DL May 4th with a left wrist sprain. He was batting .138 (8-for-58) with two RBI in 16 games for the Kernels this season. He has thrown out 74 percent of runners attempting to steal against him.
Silva played in 11 games for the Kernels, batting .227 (10-for-44) with three doubles and two RBI.
Navarreto will be available for Tuesday's home game against Wisconsin, beginning at 6:35 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
BELOIT, Wis. - The Cedar Rapids Kernels set season highs in runs scored and hits in a single game, blowing past Beloit, 12-3, on Monday at Pohlman Field.
Pat Kelly drove in five runs in the game, going 3-for-3 with a home run, double, single, walk and sacrifice fly. Kelly also scored three times. Kelly and Trey Vavra are the only Kernels to drive in five in a game this season as they moved to 28-17, a season-best 11 games above .500.
Jorge Fernandez knocked in four runs, including a three-run home run, in his first game since May 15. The two home runs made Monday the second multi-home run game for the Kernels this season. The Kernels also hit two home runs against Beloit on April 13 as Kelly and Tyler Kuresa went deep in a 9-0 win over the Snappers.
Max Murphy went 3-for-4 with a triple, double and base on balls, along with three runs scored. Murphy also scored three times on Sunday afternoon. Kuresa went 3-for-5 with a double, his first three-hit game of the season. Zack Larson collected two hits, including a double, and one run batted in. T.J. White and Brett Doe also had two hits and one run batted in each.
BELOIT, Wis. - The Cedar Rapids Kernels pounded out 13 hits and jumped to an 11-0 lead after four innings en route to an 11-1 win Sunday over the Beloit Snappers before 365 fans at Pohlman Field.
Max Murphy had three hits, including a triple, and three runs scored. Zack Larson had two hits and scored three times as well, Tyler Kuresa and Rainis Silva also had two hits apiece for the Kernels (27-17). Kuresa had three RBIs while Pat kelly and Tanner English had two each.
The game was delayed for 54 minutes by rain in the third inning. The Kernels scored four times before the delay and added another two after the break to take control of the contest.
BELOIT, Wis. - Shawn Duinkerk's walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave Beloit a 7-6 win over the Kernels Saturday afternoon before 1,438 fans at Pohlman Field.
The Kernels scored three runs in the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings.
Duinkerk's RBI single in the 10th capped a string of four consecutive singles with one out. With the game tied 6-6, Sandber Pimentel began the rally by singling into right. Max Kuhn and Joe Bennie followed with singles to center to load the bases.
Duinkerk's RBI single went the opposite way to left-center and scored Pimentel, giving Beloit its first win over the Kernels in eight games this season.
The Kernels rallied to tie the game 6-6 with three runs in the top of the ninth inning. With Beloit leading 6-3, Nick Gordon singled into left field before Trey Vavra chopped a single through the middle to put two on base.
BELOIT, Wis. - The Cedar Rapids Kernels climbed 10 games over the .500 mark Friday night with a 7-3 victory over Beloit before 1,168 fans at Pohlman Field.
T.J. White went 3-for-4 for the Kernels to lead an 11-hit attack. Nick Gordon, Trey Vavra and Rainis Silva had two hits. Vavra and Max Murphy drove in two runs. Gordon scored three runs.
Cedar Rapids raised its record to 26-16 with the victory.
Randy LeBlanc (4-0) was the winning pitcher with three innings of shutout ball in relief. Kernels started Jared Wilson allowed two runs in five innings.
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