CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Captains scored four runs in both the second and third innings Saturday night, taking an 8-0 lead they would not lose in a 10-4 win over Cedar Rapids.
Lake County got its offense going in the top of the second. To lead off the inning, Anthony Martinez skied a home run to right to put the Captains in front 1-0. Later in the inning, a pair of walks put two on for Juan Benjamin, who doubled the lead with an RBI double. A batter later, Tommy Hawke capped off the inning with a double of his own, this one plating two to extend the lead to 4-0.
The Captains added four more in the top of the third. Welbyn Francisca led off the inning with a solo home run to push the advantage to 5-0. A pair of singles and a walk then loaded the bases for Jeffery Mercedes, who made it 6-0 with an RBI hit. With the bases still loaded, a pair of walks plated two more runs to grow the difference to 8-0.
The Kernels got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Walks from JP Smith II and Danny De Andrade, with a Luis Fragoza single in between, loaded the bases with no outs. Back-to-back sacrifice flies from Byron Chourio and Ramiro Dominguez cut the deficit to 8-2.
The Captains got a run back in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Benjamin homered to left to lift Lake County ahead 9-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, Fragoza singled for the Kernels to start the inning. After he moved to second on a groundout, he scored on a Dominguez RBI base hit to make it a 9-3 game.
In the top of the seventh, the Captains got into double figures. Mercedes worked a two-out walk, and after he moved to second on a balk, he scored on a Benjamin home run to push the advantage back to 10-3.
In the bottom of the ninth, Yasser Mercedes crushed a 478-foot solo home run to left to get a run back for Cedar Rapids, but that was the end of the scoring on the night in the 10-4 defeat.
The loss drops the Kernels to 46-77 on the season. Cedar Rapids plays its last game at Veterans Memorial in the 2026 season Sunday at 1:05. Cesar Lares gets the start opposite Aidan Major.