September 22, 2021

By Jacques Lanciault

Canadian Baseball Network

A late-season power surge by Edouard Julien (Quebec City, Que.) helped propel the Minnesota Twins’ High-A Cedar Rapid Kernels into the playoffs.

The ABC and Junior National Team alum belted a home run on Sunday for the Kernels to help lead them to an 11-0 win over the Peoria Batters. It was the third consecutive game in which Julien had homered. Julien also had a double, a walk and two runs in the contest.

The L'Ancienne-Lorette athlete and Twins’ 2019 18th round pick clubbed 15 home runs for the Kernels this season after beginning the campaign with the class-A Fort Myers Miracle. Between the two levels, the Quebec Canonniers sports studies baseball program alum socked 18 home runs in 2021.

In his last four games of the season, Julien, on top of his three homers, also drove in nine runs for the Kernels.

He finished his first professional regular season with extraordinary statistics, including a combined:

-105 hits

-110 walks

-28 doubles

-one triple

-18 home runs

-93 runs

-72 RBIs

-34 stolen bases

-.266 batting averge

-.434 on-base percentage

-.480 slugging percentage

On Tuesday, Julien and the Kernels beat the Quad Cities River Bandits in Game 1 of the High-A Central League championship series to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Julien was 0-for-3 with a walk in the contest.