Three walks issued in ninth doom Beloit Sky Carp vs. Cedar Rapids

Gabriel Gonzalez hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to lift the Cedar Rapids Kernels past the Beloit Sky Carp on Friday night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Beloit had built a 6-2 lead through its half of the fifth inning thanks to Josh Zamora’s two home runs off Kernels starter Ty Langenberg. But Cedar Rapids trimmed the lead in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI groundout from Jose Salas and a run-scoring wild pitch out of Sky Carp starter Karson Milbrandt’s hand.

The Kernels made it 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth with Kevin Maitan’s RBI double off Nigel Belgrave.

Belgrave worked a scoreless seventh, then Evan Taylor took the eighth and kept the score at 6-5.

Taylor came back out for Beloit in the ninth, and that’s when the wheels came off.

He walked Misael Urbina to start the inning, then Salas bunted for a base hit. Another walk to Payton Eeles loaded the bases, and the Ricardo Olivar took a third walk in the inning to tie the game.

Gonzalez came up next and lifted a fly ball deep enough into left field to allow Salas to tag up and score the winning run.

The best the Sky Carp can do in the series is split it if they can end their three-game losing streak and beat Cedar Rapids on Saturday and Sunday. First pitch in Saturday’s game is scheduled for 6:35 p.m., while the start of Sunday’s game will be 1:05 p.m.

CEDAR RAPIDS 7, BELOIT 6

Beloit 301 020 000 — 6 12 1

Cedar Rapids 200 021 002 — 7 7 0

Beloit (ab-h-r-rbi) — Coley 3-1-2-0, Olmstead 4-2-2-1, Zamora 5-2-2-3, C. Santiago 5-0-1-1, Caballero 5-1-2-0, Montgomery 1-0-1-1, Bullard 2-0-1-0, Praytor 3-0-1-0, Luttrell 3-0-0-0, O. Johnson 4-0-0-0. Totals 35-6-12-6.

Cedar Rapids (ab-h-r-rbi) — Eeles 2-1-0-0, Olivar 3-0-0-1, G. Gonzalez 4-0-0-1, Doncon 3-1-1-2, Harry 4-1-2-0, Maitan 4-0-1-1, N. Baez 2-1-1-0, Urbina 3-2-1-0, Salas 4-1-1-1. Totals 29-7-7-6.

E: Praytor. DP: B 2, CR 1. LOB: B 8, CR 7. SB: Coley 2 (11), Eeles 2 (7). CS: C. Santiago (1). 2B — Montgomery, Olmstead, Urbina, Maitan. HR — Zamora 2, Doncon. SF: G. Gonzalez.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) — B: Milbrandt 5-4-4-4-3-2; Belgrave H, 2, 2-2-1-1-2-3; E. Taylor L, 3-2; BS, 2; 1 1/3-1-2-2-3-3. CR: Langenberg 5-10-6-6-2-3; J. Mendez 2-1-0-0-1-2; Wosinski W, 2-2, 2-1-0-0-2-1.

WP: Milbrandt. HBP: Praytor (by Wosinski), N. Baez (by Milbrandt). T: 2:41. A: 2,170.