Beloit Sky Carp fall 4-2 in opener of doubleheader against Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Cedar Rapids Kernels’ outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez continued his dominant series against the Beloit Sky Carp as his two-run homer helped propel his squad to a seven-inning 4-2 victory in the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday.

The loss puts Beloit in a 3-0 deficit in the seven-game series.

The Kernels jumped on Sky Carp starter Cade Gibson early as Luke Keachall walked, stole second and scored on Ricardo Olivar’s double to left.

Chase Luttrell tied it up in the third when he smacked his second home run of the season on a blast to left field.

But, Cedar Rapids (9-8) responded in the fourth as Rubel Cespedes started with a single and Danny De Andrade walked. After a wild pitch, Jay Harry made it 2-1 with his ground out to first.

Gonzalez, who is hitting 5-for-10 with four RBI so far in this seven-game series, then whacked his first homer of the season in the fifth to make it 4-1.

Beloit (9-8) loaded the bases off singles from Jorge Caballero and Carlos Santiago and a walk by Torin Montgomery in the sixth but Ynmanol Marinez struck out.

Luttrell hit a one-out single in the seventh, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Johnny Olmstead’s single. Josh Zamora popped out but Jake Thompson singled to put two runners on before Caballero struck out.

Olmstead, Thompson and Luttrell all had two hits for Beloit, which outhit the Kernels 9-5 but went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Gibson went five innings and allowed four earned runs on four hits while Dale Stanavich struck out two in a clean sixth.

Zebby Matthews was strong in his start for Cedar Rapids as he allowed just one earned run on five hits while striking out seven in 5 2-3 innings.

• LINESCORE:

KERNELS 4, SKY CARP 2

Beloit;001;000;1;—;2;9;0

CR;100;120;—;4;5;1

BELOIT (ab-r-h-rbi) — Olmstead, ss, 4-0-2-1, Zamora, 2b, 4-0-0-0, Thompson, dh, 4-0-2-0, Roberts, cf, 2-0-0-0, Caballero, rf, 2-0-1-0, Montgomery, 1b, 2-0-0-0, Santiago, lf, 3-0-1-0, Marinez, 3b, 3-0-0-0, Mercado, c, 3-0-1-0, Luttrell, rf-cf, 3-2-2-1. Totals: 30-2-9-2.

CR (ab-r-h-rbi) — Kaschall, 2b, 2-2-1-0, Gonzalez, rf, 3-1-1-2, Olivar, c, 3-0-1-1, Cespedes, dh, 3-1-1-0, De Andrade, ss, 1-0-0-0, Harry, 3b, 3-0-0-1, Urbina, cf, 3-0-0-0, Ruiz, lf, 2-0-1-0, Cavaco, 1b, 2-0-0-0. Totals: 22-4-5-4.

E: De Andrade. DP: Beloit 0, CR 1. LOB: Beloit 8, CR 3. SB: Keaschall (9). CS: Urbina. 2B: Olivar, Ruiz, Keaschall. HR: Luttrell (2), Gonzalez (1).

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Beloit, Gibson (L,0-1,5.0-5-4-4-2-2), Stanavich (1.0-0-0-0-1-2). CR, Matthews (W,3-0,5.2-5-1-1-0-7), Bischoff (1.0-4-1-1-1-2), Velez (S,3,0.1-0-0-0-0-1).

WP: Gibson, Stanavich, Bischoff 2. T: 2:00.