Over the past two years, the Des Moines Kernels may or may not have struck fear into the hearts of many teams, but fans of the Yellow Springs Nine knew better. The Kernels have been a consistent thorn in the side, and in fact were 13-11 against the Nine over those past two seasons. With the club heading toward Iowa for a three-game series, you can imagine fans were braced for the worst.
Thankfully, the worst was not to come.
Instead, the Yellow Springs faithful were treated to three days of overpowering baseball, the first of which featured Brian Sullivan’s 10th double and Alfredo Salazar’s 16th homer. Tristan Alfama made a solid 5+ inning stint out of the bullpen, but Momcilo Djuretic was the right man on the spot to receive his 5th victory by a score of 6-4. A day later Jose Chavez channeled his past and went into the eighth inning to earn his 8th victory (170 for his career). Dogface struck out four hitters, but walked only one and allowed only 4 hits while the bat dropped three bombs on Des Moines pitchers and the Nine won by a convincing 5-1 margin. Game three was literally never in doubt as the Nine scored 5 runs in the first inning, and were powered by six home runs, two by Alfredo Salazar (his third and fourth of the series). On the mound, YS9 ace Carlos Valle cruised for seven innings, allowing only one run while striking out six and walking no one.
“That was how we want to do it,” said rookie manager Bill Inkster after the game. “We got big performances by guys like Salazar and Valle, but you look back and you see it was a team series. That's who we are, really. We're more like a river than a wave.”
The sweep leaves the team at 76-45 as they head back to Utopia Field to face a tough San Fernando team that finds itself in a tussle for the Pacific division and a wild card chase.
“They’ll be ready to play,” Inkster said. “We’ll need all hands on deck.”
