Monarchs Halted by Railcats, Drop First Game of Set

Kansas City, KS — The Monarchs five-game win streak officially came to an end with an 11-3 loss to Gary Southshore on Friday night.

It was a night where Gary stepped on the gas pedal and never took their foot off. Camryn Williams opened up the second frame with an opposite field homer to left field that bounced off the top of the wall. After two-straight walks, Kevin Watson Jr cranked a three-run bomb into left field and it did not stop there. Two batters later, Kevin Howell hammered a two-run home run into center field and Gary finished the frame up 6-0.

One of the bright spots offensively for Kansas City was first baseman, Saul Garza. In the bottom half of the second, he muscled his first home-run at Legends Field with a deep shot into left center. He tallied his fifth homer of the season while finishing the night at the plate going 3-4 with a pair of doubles. He says, “I felt really good about the preparation we had pre game (and) talking with the hitting coach, I felt like we discovered something from watching film over the last few days. I definitely tried to work on a few things and luckily was able to translate that to the game.”

The Railcats continued their offensive production in the fifth inning with a pair of runs on a two-run RBI single from Williams followed by two more tallies in the sixth. Kevin Watson Jr got home on a passed ball and Joe Suozzi smashed an RBI single to send in Colin Summerhill. It was an 10-1 advantage and the Monarchs found themselves with a hill too steep to climb.

An uncharacteristic outing from the KC bullpen as Jimmy Endersby made his debut on the mound. He gave up four hits and six runs, but showed promise with three K’s. The most impressive appearance out of the pen was right-handed pitcher, Dylan Heid. The Malvern, PA native dumped in three punch outs in two innings and surrendered no runs.

Kansas City earned a run back in the bottom half of the sixth after Grant Richardson singled and was eventually able to score on a sac-fly from Austin Callahan, but they were halted there. The final tally of the night came in the ninth frame on a fielders choice RBI from Hudson Head to send in Alvaro Gonzalez.

The Monarchs will look to answer back tomorrow in the second game of the series against Gary SouthShore. They find themselves down a game in the series and will look to even it back.