Peoria completed a doubleheader sweep of Cedar Rapids on Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, rallying for a 6-5, 10-inning victory to complete Friday’s suspended game before rolling to a 13-2 win behind Tai Peete’s second cycle of the season and another dominant outing from Tanner Franklin.
With the two victories, the Chiefs improved to 18-16 in the second half and evened their overall record at 50-50. Winners of five straight, Peoria sits three games out of first place.
Game one resumed Saturday evening with Cedar Rapids leading 2-0 and a runner on first with nobody out in the bottom of the third inning after Friday night’s rain suspension.
Quinn McDaniel added an RBI groundout before Andy Lugo followed with an RBI single to extend the Kernels’ lead to 4-0. Prior to Friday’s suspension, Eduardo Tait and Danny De Andrade hit back-to-back solo home runs in the first inning to account for Cedar Rapids’ first two runs.
Peoria began its comeback in the fifth when Jack Gurevitch drove in a run on a groundout before Luis Pino ripped a two-run triple in the sixth to cut the deficit to 4-3.
In the seventh, Cade McGee tied the game with an RBI double before Anyelo Encarnación followed with an RBI single to give the Chiefs their first lead at 5-4. Cedar Rapids answered in the bottom half on Miguel Briceno’s RBI single to force extra innings.
In the 10th, Encarnación delivered again, lining an RBI single to score automatic runner McGee and put Peoria ahead for good, 6-5.
Christian Worley earned the win with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing no runs while striking out three and walking none.
In game two, the Chiefs wasted little time taking control.
Jalin Flores plated Tai Peete with an RBI groundout in the first before Peoria added three more runs in the third on Peete’s RBI triple, Gurevitch’s RBI single and a passed ball to build a 4-0 lead.
After Cedar Rapids scored once in the fourth, the Chiefs answered with back-to-back RBI singles from Sammy Hernandez and Michael Dattalo in the fifth to make it 6-1.
Tanner Franklin continued his outstanding stretch, allowing one run over five innings in his fourth consecutive start of one-run ball. He surrendered five hits while striking out seven and walking none.
Peete launched a two-run homer to right field in the sixth after Cameron Nickens’ leadoff walk to make it 8-1 Peoria.
With position player Graham Brown on the mound in the seventh, Peoria tacked on five more runs to blow the game open and extend its lead to 13-1. Peete drove in the first run of the inning with a single to complete the second cycle of his season after also accomplishing the feat on April 16 against Wisconsin. He finished game two 4-for-4 with a single, double, triple, home run and four RBIs.
Kernels’ Byron Chourio connected on a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh for his first High-A homer, making it 13-2.
The Chiefs have an opportunity to complete a six-game series sweep over the Kernels on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
Fans can listen to the hometown call on PeoriaChiefs.com.