Thanks to home runs from Jack Gurevitch and Josh Kross in a five-run seventh inning, the Chiefs came back to win 5-4 over the Kernels on Thursday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
With the victory, the Chiefs have won all three games this week to begin the series at Cedar Rapids and improve to 16-16 in the second half of the season.
The Kernels were all over Chiefs starter Ty Van Dyke in the first inning, scoring three runs on four hits.
Jacob McCombs blasted a leadoff shot to right field. Yasser Mercedes doubled, and Eduardo Tait drove him in on an RBI single. Danny De Andrade doubled in Tait, making it 3-0 Kernels in the first.
The game turned into a pitchers' duel from there.
Van Dyke retired the next 10 batters, eventually tossing five innings while walking two and striking out six.
Cedar Rapids starter Adrian Bohorquez was excellent, recording four innings for the first time this season while allowing neither a run nor a hit, walking one and striking out six.
Kernels reliever Cole Peschl threw a one-two-three fifth inning before Peoria finally notched its first hit in the sixth after a leadoff walk to Jalin Flores. Kross hit a groundball to the right side of the infield, but first baseman Miguel Briceno couldn’t handle his backhand attempt and it was ruled a hit.
José Suárez walked afterward, loading the bases for Michael Dattalo, who lined out to center field to leave them stranded.
In the sixth, the Kernels brought in the game’s first run since the opening frame on Andy Lugo’s RBI single to make it 4-0.
Peoria finally broke through in the seventh inning.
Sammy Hernandez, Ian Petrutz and Anyelo Encarnación walked before Luis Pino brought in the Chiefs’ first run on a sacrifice fly to deep right field, cutting the deficit to 4-1.
With two on and one out, Gurevitch went deep for his eighth time in his last eight games: a three-run bomb to left-center field to tie the game at four.
After Flores struck out, Kross connected on a solo homer to center field to give the Chiefs their first lead of the night, 5-4, on their second long ball of the inning.
Dylan Driessen, who earned the win, and Jawilme Ramírez recorded scoreless seventh and eighth innings, respectively.
In the bottom of the ninth, Ramírez struck out Lugo and induced two fly outs to earn his first save of the season.
Game four of the six-game set is scheduled for Friday at 6:35 p.m. Fans can listen to the hometown call on PeoriaChiefs.com.