South Bend SilverHawks at Cedar Rapids Kernels


May 28th, 2002

Hawks
Name POS AB R H RBI
Jarred Ball LF 2 0 1 0
Bryan Loeb C 3 0 1 0
Scott Hairston 2B 3 0 1 0
Kyle Nichols 1B 2 1 1 1
Heath Honeycutt 3B 2 0 1 0
Mike DiRosa DH 1 0 0 0
Rich Barrett RF 2 0 1 0
Lino Garcia CF 2 0 0 0
Rich Haydel SS 2 0 0 0
Kernels
Name POS AB R H RBI
Ransel Melgarejo CF 1 1 0 0
Dallas McPherson 3B 3 0 0 0
Jeff Mathis C 3 0 1 0
Casey Kotchman 1B 1 0 0 0
Mike Eylward 1B
Mike Napoli DH 2 1 1 0
Greg Porter LF 2 1 2 0
Justin Turner 2B 2 0 2 1
Tommy Murphy SS 2 0 0 1
Nick Kimpton RF 1 0 0 0

South Bend 0 0 0 1 0 1 6 2
Cedar Rapids 1 1 1 0 0 3 6 0
E-Loeb, Perkin, LOB SB-5, CR-5, 2B-Turner, HR-Nichols (Woods), SB-Barrett, CS-Honeycutt, Turner

Hawks
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Greg Perkin 4.1 6 3 2 4 1 L (2-5)

Kernels
Name IP H R ER BB SO Decison
Jake Woods 5 6 1 1 2 4 W (3-2)

WP-Perkin, SO-Hairston, DiRosa, Haydel 2, Mathis, BB-Ball, DiRosa, Melgarejo 2, Kotchman, Kimpton
T-1:26, A-1,669
U-Josh Miller, Todd Walters

South Bend Tribune

A few raindrops didn't seem to bother the Cedar Rapids Kernels Tuesday evening. Greg Porter and Justin Turner had two hits apiece and Jake Woods scattered six hits over five innings as Cedar Rapids sent South Bend to it's fourth straight loss with a 3-1 victory in Midwest League baseball action.

The contest was called after 4 1/2 innings following a rain delay of nearly two hours.

A pair of miscues allowed the Kernels to get on the board in the opening frame against South Bend starter Greg Perkin (2-5).

Ransel Melgarejo drew a walk, moved to second on a wild pickoff attempt by Perkin, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and came in to score when catcher Bryan Loeb's throw to third was wide of the mark.

Turner produced what proved to be the game winner in the second with a double down the right field line, allowing Porter to come around all the way from first base.

Kyle Nichols accounted for the Hawks' lone tally with his fifth homer of the season leading off the fourth inning.

Cedar Rapids Gazette
by Jeff Johnson

It's sort of like finding a 20 dollar bill laying around the house that you didn't know you had.

You've got to love that free money. Got to love those baseball games where you don't actually have to play nine innings to get a victory, too.

That's what the Cedar Rapids Kernels experienced Tuesday night at Memorial Stadium. That, of course, came along with two or three heavy rain storms, a ton of lightning and thunder and even some intermittent hail.

The Kernels beat the South Bend SilverHawks, 3-1, in a game that was called with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning. Since South Bend had completed it's fifth inning at bats, the game was officially credited as a win for the Kernels, who ended a two game losing streak.

"That's how the ball drops sometimes," Kernels Mike Napoli said, "We were playing for a couple of early runs. Our manager Todd Claus, saw it was going to be a rainy night. So we were trying to get a couple of runs across before the rain came."

The Kernels looked good in the little less than five innings.

Leadoff hitter Ransel Melgarejo's aggressiveness on the basepaths helped the Kernels score a quick first inning run. Melgarejo led off with a walk, went to second on starting pitcher Greg Perkin's wild pickoff atempt, went to third on a Perkin wild pitch and scored when South Bend catcher Bryan Loeb threw wildly to third base trying to nab him on the play.

The Kernels added another run in the second on a Greg Porter leadoff single, Justin Turner's following double down the first base line and Tommy Murphy's RBI ground out. It became a 3-0 game an inning later, when Turner brought home Napoli with a run scoring hit to left.

Turner and Porter each went 2 for 2 in the game.

The Kernels (26-24) moved within 4 1/2 games of first place Peoria in the Western Division of the Midwest League and went ahead of Quad City by a half game for second place and the final first half playoff berth.

"We're going to go about our business," Napoli said. "First we want to have that first half championship. If not, we're still going to go ahead with our season the way we've been. Just go out an play hard every day."

"We can only worry about ourselves."

Kernels starter Jake Woods (3-2) was a fortunate recipient of the rain. He didn't appear to have his best stuff but ended up throwing all five innings, allowing six hits, walking two and striking out four to win his second straight start.

The only flaw in Woods' line came courtesy of South Bend cleanup hitter Kyle Nichols, who launched his fifth home run, a long blast to left center leading off the SilverHawk fourth.

Perkin, one of South Bend players to take a postgame slide on the drenched infield tarl, suffered the loss. He allowed six hits and dour runs in 4 1/3 innings.

About the only bad news of the night for the Kernels was Casey Kotchman leaving the game in the top of the fifth. Kotchman said he has been suffering from stomach fly but also was hit on the elbow by a pitch in a game at Lansing.