Without Clinton and Burlington, the High A Central took on a different look. Of course, Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Quad Cities River Bandits have been the rivalry through the years. And most, if not all games I either went to Cedar Rapids or Davenport to see, mostly Davenport due to that area's access to thrift stores and record stores and a stadium by the Mississippi River. I only went to one Kernels game all season, no thanks to spring processing. The high A Central has a East and West division but the playoffs were decided with the two teams with the best record. In this case. The River Bandits had the best record overall, Cedar Rapids, beat the Peoria Chiefs, won the last four meetings to outlast Dayton, Lake County and Great Lakes. Dayton had a six game winning streak, by then it was too little too late and they ended up tying Lake Country with a 65-55 record.
So in essence, this turned out to be an all Iowa Championship series. Both teams have been in the playoffs for the past few seasons. The Kernels have managed to make it eight straight playoff series.
Photo: CR Kernels. Camargo ready to hit it out the park
Game one, 1,058 fans strolled into Cedar Rapids to see a pitching duel. QC scored first, CR got the run back in the second. It seemed to me that the QC Bandits haven't been as dominant in the scoring department when I have seen them the past three times in Davenport, they had leads, the other team came back to tie and then The Bandits would win in extra innings and it felt like that was going to happen again. The Kernels left 7 on base in the 4-6th innings. Jair Camargo then deposited a Caden Monke pitch past the right field wall for a solo shot and Zach Featherstone came in and struck out Jake Means on a checked swing called strike to end the game.
Game 2. 1,371 folks showed up for the final Kernels game and this time it was all River Bandits. Mikel Garcia hit a home run. and scored two more runs and Nick Loftin hit a two run home run in the first and that was all Quad Cities needed to shut out the Kernels 6-0. Four Bandit pitchers held the Kernels to 3 hits and didn't put much of a fight on offense, 14 K's, very Cubs like. With that, this becomes a best of three heading to Davenport on Friday. Me thinks it will be over on Saturday.
Game 3
The Kernels hit four home runs, two by Eduardo Julien to propel Cedar Rapids to an 8 to 4 win. A hour and twenty nine minute rain delay and the game took three and a half hours to complete. Bandits were done in by leaving 13 runners on base. Cedar Rapids can win the Championship on Saturday.
Game 4
Logan Porter hit a Zach Featherstone pitch over the left field fence in the 9th inning to force a game 5.A 2-1 win. What really stood out is that the Kernels left the bases loaded three times and failed to score any runs out of this. The Kernels stranded 14 runners in the game. And it forced the winner take all game on Sunday.
Game 5
The River Bandits walked 8 Kernels players, but Cedar Rapids couldn't get them in at all. The game was decided in the first when Game 4 hero Logan Porter drove in Mikeal Garcia. Tucker Bradley added a home run in the 4th and a sac fly in the 7th to put the game on ice. A J Block, started and pitched fairly well but was lifted for Zach Haake who got the win. Cody Lawyerson, only got one out before Denny Bentley relieved him. The Kernels loaded the bases but Haake stuck out the next three batters and basically that what all she wrote for CR, who simply didn't hit. This power outage would end up being Quad Cities being champs of the newly form High A Central (formerly Midwest League RIP) and their forth in the past decade. The Kernels were in their 7th straight post season. The QC title was their first as part of the Kansas City Royals.
