It’s never a good sign when your baseball team’s run production is matched by a single opposing player, but that’s exactly the kind of night the Cedar Rapids Kernels had Friday.

The game started badly for the Kernels, then got worse before it turned outright ugly, all leading to a 12-3 drubbing at the hands of the Peoria Chiefs.

Chiefs left fielder Kenny Peoples-Wall singlehandedly matched the Kernels' run total, scoring three runs by himself, but he was far from the only Peoria hitter to cross the plate.

Peoria scored once in the first inning, once in the second, three times in the third and sent a whopping seven runners across the plate in the visitor's half of the fourth inning

Meanwhile, Peoria pitchers combined to strike out 14 Kernels batters.

It was a disappointing night, not only for the Kernels, but for 2,671 fans, the largest crowd of the year to come through the Veterans Memorial Stadium turnstiles.

A thousand of those fans didn’t go home empty-handed, however, as the Kernels distributed their full supply of “Bruce Aune as Ron Burgandy” bobbleheads more than a half-hour before the game’s first pitch, according to Kernels General Manager Doug Nelson.

One bright spot on the night for the Kernels' offense was the hitting of second baseman Logan Wade. Wade, who knocked in the game-winning runs in his final trip to the plate Thursday night, carried his hot bat into Friday, delivering two doubles and a single in his first three at-bats against the Chiefs.

Wade’s double in the third inning drove Engelb Vielma across with the first Kernels’ run of the game and Wade scored the team’s second run on a subsequent Chad Christensen RBI single.

Jason Kanzler finished the Kernels' scoring with his first home run of the season, a solo poke to straightaway center field, in the ninth inning.

Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Felix Jorge (2-2) gave up five runs, all earned, in three innings of work. Most of the Chiefs’ damage, however, came against relief pitcher Christian Powell. Powell gave up seven runs (six earned) and notched just two outs while Peoria batted around against him in the fourth inning.

Righthander Todd Van Steensel, who just joined the Kernels from extended spring training a week ago, came on in relief of Powell with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning and threw 2.1 shutout innings. Brendan Bixler added three shutout relief innings.

Their efforts didn’t go unnoticed by their manager. “Bixler gave us some big, big innings. We were getting pretty thin out there (in the bullpen),” Jake Mauer said, adding, “Van Steensel did a nice job.”

The Kernels (15-12) will take on Peoria again Saturday night at 6:35. It will be the first post-game fireworks night of the season at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Kernels will also be wearing special pink jerseys that will be auctioned off to benefit the American Cancer Society.

PEORIA (12): McElroy, cf, 5 0 0 0, Valera, 3b, 5 2 2 0, Herrera, ss, 5 2 3 3, Kelly, c, 5 2 2 2, Peoples-Walls, lf, 4 3 3 2, Bean, dh, 5 1 2 2, Stone, 1b, 3 1 1 0, Young, rf, 2 0 0 1, Schulze, 2b, 4 1 1 1. Totals 38 12 14 11.

KERNELS (3): Kanzler, cf, 5 1 2 1, Wade, 2b, 5 1 3 1, Christensen, 1b, 4 0 1 1, Garver, c, 4 0 0 0, Larson, rf, 5 0 0 0, Haar, 3b, 4 0 2 0, Thomas, lf, 2 0 0 0, Santy, dh, 4 0 1 0, Vielma, ss, 3 1 1 0. Totals 36 3 10 3.

Peoria    113 700 000 - 12 14 2

Kernels   002 000 001 - 3 10 1

Garcia, Herget (6), Thomas (9) and Kelly. Jorge, Powell (4), Van Steensel (4), Bixler (7) and Garver. W - Garcia (2-2). L - Jorge (2-2). 2B - Wade 2 (6). 3B - Valera (1), Kelly (3), Herrera (1). HR - Peoples-Walls (1), Kanzler (1). SB - Young (1). E - Herrera 2 (5), Thomas (1). T - 3:03. A - 2,671.