Terrific regular season, crummy playoffs.

That's the epitaph for the 2013 Cedar Rapids Kernels, who delighted their fans for five months before firing blanks in the Midwest League playoffs.

The Kernels collected only four hits for the second straight game and got bumped from the postseason by the Quad Cities River Bandits, 4-2, before 2,660 bummed-out fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium Thursday night.

The River Bandits swept the best-of-3 series, 2-0, and advance to the league semifinals. The frustrated Kernels, meanwhile, will go home to various parts of the United States, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Australia and Germany.

The Kernels led the Midwest League in runs scored this year by a wide margin and hit .267 during the regular season, but they went 8-for-65 in the playoffs for a woeful team batting average of .123.

Manager Jake Mauer closed the clubhouse doors for a few minutes after the game, not to chew them out but to pat them on the back and share a few tears.

"He got a little choked up," said Kernels infielder Joel Licon. "That got me a little bit. That's tough to see your head coach get emotional. I'm at a loss for words right now.

"I didn't think it was going to end like this, but we had a great season," said Licon. "It's not the end of the world. We'll come back next year ready to go."

Cedar Rapids compiled a lusty 88-50 record during the regular season, the best mark in the Midwest League by a comfortable margin. The 88 victories matched the second-most in franchise history, but the Kernels faced the wrong team in the playoffs.

The River Bandits beat the Kernels 12 out of 18 times this season and were clearly the better team when it counted.

The Kernels caught a tough break Thursday when Adam Brett Walker's long, towering shot down the left-field line in the fourth inning was called a foul ball by home-plate umpire Nick Garvey rather than a two-run homer. It would have pulled the Kernels within 4-3 at the time, but was just a long strike.

The Kernels dugout, led by hitting coach Tommy Watkins, howled in protest. Mauer talked to Garvey, but there aren't any replays in the Midwest League and the ump was not going to change his mind.

The ball appeared to leave the ballpark on the fair side of the foul pole before hooking the other way and landing somewhere on 8th Avenue SW. The "fair or foul" call depends on where the ball leaves the playing field, not where it lands.

"That's a tough call for anybody," said Mauer. "Most of our guys said fair. Their third baseman thought it was fair. Twenty-six hundred people thought it was fair. But the guy who matters the most didn't, so that's what it comes down to."

Walker slugged 27 homers this season, the most in the Midwest League. Number 28 would have been huge.

"From what I saw, yeah, I thought it was fair," said Walker. "Their third baseman told me it was fair. Oh well, can't change it now. It kind of sucks. It changed the game a little bit when he called it foul."

Second baseman Jorge Polanco was the only Kernel who hit well in the playoffs by going 3-for-8. Mike Gonzales was 2-for-8, but everyone else struggled.

Travis Harrison went 0-for-8 with five strikeouts. Max Kepler, gamely playing with 11 stitches in his right hand, went 0-for-8. Michael Quesada and Niko Goodrum were 0-for-7. Licon and Jonathan Murphy were 1-for-6, but Murphy hit a solo home run to give the Kernels a 1-0 lead in the first inning Thursday.

The Kernels struck out 19 times in the two games. They had two doubles, six singles and only three runs.

The light-hitting Kernels needed a strong performance on the mound from right-hander Tim Shibuya, who began the day with a 4-0 record and a sparkling 0.96 earned run average. Shibuya allowed only four earned runs in 37.2 innings during the regular season, but he allowed four more earned runs in just six innings  Thursday.

Shibuya was the victim of some shaky defense in the fourth inning when the River Bandits scored three runs, but he was touched for nine hits and allowed a home run.

It was a sudden and disappointing finish for the Kernels. They won legions of fans and admirers in Year 1 of the new affiliation with the Minnesota Twins, but it ended sadly for everyone.

"It's pretty rough," said Walker. "It sucks to end the season this way, but overall it was a fun season with a lot of great times."

Mauer was still a little misty-eyed when he spoke with reporters in his office. He was naturally disappointed with the way it ended, but proud of the journey.

"That's what I told the boys," he said. "I don't want them to feel they're a failure after the last two nights. We didn't play our best and that's kind of how it goes. We won a lot of games here and did a lot of good things.

"It's been a really good year all-around," said Mauer. "We look forward to coming back next year. A lot of faces changed, but we kept producing. I couldn't be happier with those guys.

"We're proud of them, of the way they competed and they way they played and how they handled themselves here in the community. They've set the bar pretty high for a lot of the teams that will come here after us."

QUAD CITIES (4): Kemp, 2b, 4 0 1 0, Hernandez, cf, 4 0 2 2, Correa, ss, 4 0 0 0, Vasquez, lf, 4 0 1 0, Borchering, 1b, 4 0 0 0, Ruiz, 3b, 3 2 2 1, Pena, c, 4 1 2 1, Scott, rf, 4 1 1 0, Blasik, dh, 3 0 1 0. Totals 34 4 10 4.

KERNELS (2): Murphy, cf, 4 1 1 1, Goodrum, ss, 4 0 0 0, Polanco, 2b, 4 1 1 0, Gonzales, 1b, 4 0 1 0, Walker, rf, 3 0 0 0, Kepler, lf, 4 0 0 1, Harrison, dh, 4 0 0 0, Quesada, c, 3 0 0 0, Licon, 3b, 3 0 1 0. Totals 33 2 4 2.

Quad Cities     010 300 000 - 4 10 2
Kernels          100 001 000 - 2  4 0

Bircher, Osborne (6), Christensen (6), Walter (9) and Pena. Shibuya, Melotakis (7), Gilbert (9) and Quesada. W - Bircher (1-0). L - Shibuya (0-1). Sv - Walter (1). 2B - Pena (1), Gonzales (2), Polanco (1). HR - Ruiz (1), Murphy (1). SB - Walker (1). E - Ruiz (2), Correa (1). T - 2:27. A - 2,660.