PEORIA, ILL - Peoria scored three times in the second and three more in the fourth to overcome an early 4-0 deficit and knock off the Kernels 9-6 Tuesday night.
For the third straight game to begin the series, the Kernels got on the board first. In the top of the second, walks from Yasser Mercedes and Khadim Diaw put two on for Quinn McDaniel, who produced an RBI single in his first Kernels at-bat to lift Cedar Rapids ahead 1-0. The next batter, Danny De Andrade, followed suit with an RBI base hit to double the lead to 2-0. Behind him, an Andy Lugo sacrifice fly and a Marek Houston RBI single put the Kernels on top 4-0.
Peoria didn’t take long to respond. In the bottom of the inning, a Luis Pino single in between a pair of walks loaded the bases for Tre Richardson, who cleared the bags with a three-run double to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Richardson struck again in the fourth. A hit-by-pitch and a single put two on for him, and he cleared the bases again this time with a two-run double to put the Chiefs ahead for the first time in the series, 5-4. A batter later, Richardson came home on a Won-Bin Cho RBI hit to push the Peoria lead to 6-4.
The Chiefs added on in the seventh. Another Pino hit surrounded by two walks loaded the bases, and a pair of bases-loaded walks brought in two more runs to make it 8-4. Cedar Rapids pitching walked a season-high 12 and hit three in the loss.
The Kernels got a run back in the top of the eighth. Diaw ripped a one-out double in front of McDaniel, who drove in his second run in his Midwest League debut with an RBI single to lessen the Peoria lead to 8-5. Both Diaw and McDaniel posted three-hit games in the losing effort.
Peoria again had the answer in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Kross lifted a home run to left to put the Chiefs back up by four at 9-5.
Cedar Rapids tried to rally in the ninth. Andy Lugo worked a walk to begin the inning, moved to third on a Brandon Winokur hit with an error, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-6. After an Eduardo Tait walk, the game’s tying run came to the plate, but the Kernels could not push anything else across home plate in the 9-6 defeat.
The loss snaps the Kernels five-game road winning streak and drops Cedar Rapids to 23-19 on the season. Game four of the set with the Chiefs is slated for Friday at 6:35. Dasan Hill gets the start opposite Tanner Franklin.