Beloit Sky Carp lose second straight with 4-1 loss to Cedar Rapids Kernels

The Beloit Sky Carp have quickly gone from a lengthy winning streak to a minor losing skid after losing a second straight game to the Cedar Rapids Kernels in a 4-1 setback Thursday night at Rise 2 Greatness Field in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Beloit, which had won nine-straight games heading into Wednesday, falls behind 1-2 in the six-game road trip against Cedar Rapids.

The Kernels jumped out to a 2-0 lead after Jay Harry drew a one-out walk off starter Noble Meyer and, an out later, Agustin Ruiz hit his fourth home run of the season with his blast to right field.

Cedar Rapids’ Payton Eeles was hit by a pitch with an out in the second and stole second. Meyer got Olivar to strike out for the second out, but Yeuris Jimenez came in to relieve the Marlins’ top prospect and allowed an RBI single to Gabriel Gonzalez.

The Sky Carp (4-2) finally struck against starter Jeremy Lee in the fifth when Osiris Johnson reached on a throwing error by third baseman Rayne Doncon and stole second. Mark Coley’s infield single put runners on the corners, and Johnny Olmstead’s sacrifice fly to left scored Johnson, but Coley was out at first base.

It was the only offense Beloit could muster all night. Lee finished with six innings tossed and allowed five hits and one unearned run with no walks and three strikeouts.

Reliever Kyle Bischoff threw two hitless innings while punching out two and Ricardo Velez struck out three in a scoreless ninth.

Beloit’s Josh Zamora singled to start off the sixth but Carlos Santiago hit into a double play, one of two turned by Cedar Rapids on Thursday. Cameron Barstad walked in the seventh and Santiago led off the ninth with a double, but Beloit couldn’t string together enough offense.

Coley had two hits while Jose Salas and Gonzalez each had two for the Kernels (4-2).

Meyer, making his first appearance after missing his last two scheduled starts due to injury, allowed three earned runs on one hit and two walks while striking out three in 2 2-3 innings.

Josh Ekness worked around two walks and two hits in two scoreless innings while Xavier Meachem stranded two in the eighth after allowing a pair of hits.

Beloit is now in a three-way tie for first place in the Midwest League West in the early part of the second half of the season.

The Sky Carp will try to even up the series Friday with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

KERNELS 4, SKY CARP 1

Beloit 000 010 000 — 1 6 0

Cedar Rapids 021 010 00X — 4 8 1

Beloit (ab-r-h-rbi) — Coley, rf, 4-0-2-0, Olmstead, ss, 3-0-0-1, Zamora, 2b, 3-0-1-0, Santiago, 1b, 4-0-1-0, DeLeo, lf, 4-0-1-0, Montgomery, dh, 4-0-0-0, Barstad, c, 3-0-1-0, Bullard, 3b, 3-0-0-0, Johnson, cf, 3-1-0-0. Totals: 31-1-6-1.

Cedar Rapids (ab-r-h-rbi) — Eeles, ss, 2-1-1-1, Olivar, lf, 3-0-0-0, Gonzalez, dh, 4-0-2-1, Doncon, 3b, 4-0-0-0, Harry, 2b, 2-1-1-0, Maitan, 1b, 3-0-0-0, Ruiz, rf, 4-1-1-2, Salas, cf, 4-1-2-0, Tatum, c, 4-0-1-0. Totals: 30-4-8-4.

E: Doncon. OF: Olivar (Coley at 1st). DP: Beloit 0, CR 2. LOB: Beloit 6, CR 8. SB: Johnson (12), Harry (5), Eeles (5). CS: Eeles. 2B: Santiago, Salas. HR: Ruiz (4). SF: Olmstead.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — B: Meyer L, 0-1, 2 2/3-1-3-3-2-3, Jimenez 2 1/3-3-1-1-0-0, Ekness 2-2-0-0-2-3, Meachem 1-2-0-0-0-1. CR: Lee W, 1-3, 6-5-1-0-0-3, Bischoff 2-0-0-0-1-2, Velez S, 7, 1-1-0-0-0-3.

WP: Meyer, Jimenez. HBP: Zamora (by Lee), Eeles (by Meyer), Harry (by Ekness). T: 2:25. Att: 2,190.