Peoria snapped a four-game skid behind a nine-run offensive outburst, five strong relief innings from Nolan Sparks and a section of fans embracing the Cardinals ‘Tarps off’ trend in a 9-6 victory Thursday night at Dozer Park.
In the second inning, the Chiefs fell behind early thanks to four Kernels runs on three hits off Peoria starter Nate Dohm.
Quinn McDaniel and Danny De Andrade recorded back-to-back RBI singles before Andy Lugo added a sacrifice fly. Marek Houston capped the inning with an RBI single to make it 4-0 Kernels.
Peoria responded in the bottom of the second when Tre Richardson III connected on a bases-clearing double into the left-field corner, bringing in Josh Kross, Luis Pino and Christian Martin to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Dohm pitched three innings, allowing four runs on four hits while walking two and striking out three.
Sparks took over in relief in the fourth and steadied the game, tossing five frames of one-run baseball.
In the fourth, Richardson hit another two-bagger to left, scoring Martin and Sammy Hernandez to put the Chiefs in front 5-4. Won-Bin Cho drove in Richardson on the next at-bat with an RBI single to extend Peoria’s lead to 6-4.
The next runs didn't arrive until the seventh, when Peoria scored twice on bases-loaded walks. Hernandez earned a free pass to force home Kross before Cho worked another walk to bring in Pino and make it 8-4.
Cedar Rapids got a run back in the eighth on McDaniel’s third single of the night, plating Khadim Diaw to trim the deficit to 8-5.
Kross answered in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run to lengthen the Chiefs’ advantage to 9-5. That excitement led to a section of fans on the suite level taking off their shirts and waving them around like rally towels as part of the ‘Tarps Off’ trend.
In front of the rowdy crowd, Peoria reliever Jason Savacool replaced Sparks in the ninth and allowed one run on a wild pitch that scored Lugo, but Peoria closed out its first win of the series.
The Chiefs return to Dozer Park for game four of the six-game set on Friday at 6:35 p.m.
The first 1,000 fans receive a Piggy Bank, courtesy of Nest Egg Wealth Management. It’s also Wands and Wizards Night where magical-themed entertainment takes place throughout the game. Finally, families can purchase four tickets and two small pizza coupons to Firehouse Pizza & Pub for just $50.
Larry Larson and Nico Horning will be live on MiLB.TV, the Bally Sports Live app, and PeoriaChiefs.com.