Monarchs Hang On to Earn Fifth-Straight Win
Kansas City, KS — After surrendering an early lead, the Monarchs were able score four unanswered runs and grab a 4-2 victory over the Canaries on Saturday night.
Sioux Falls took their first lead of the series in the first frame as Mike Hart walked and then eventually got all the way to third. He stole a base and then tagged up to put himself 90 feet away. Chase Englehard grounded into third, put Hart raced on home to score the first run of the game.
The Monarchs wasted no time orchestrating a response as they got the offense started in the third inning. Trevor Boone and Brady Lindsly opened it up with base hits to put two runners on. Nick Martini flew out, but Boone advanced to put the runners at the corners. JD Davis earned his 15th RBI this season with a sharply driven ground ball into right field and Boone scored. One batter later, Luken Baker lined a ball to left field which scored Lindsly. Kansas City had the lead and never looked back.
Darren McCaughan made his second start at Legends Field and went 5.2 innings while giving up three hits and two runs, but threw five punch outs. The Long Beach native talked about this team and said, “They’re all good players, I played against a lot of these guys. Everybody is here because they choose to be here. Nobody is forced to be here, everybody loves the game. Guys get here early, everybody is working. It’s cool to see.”
After the third inning, KC continued to put runs on the board with a pair of tallies in the fourth. Saul Garza walked and Hudson Head registered his team-leading 10th double. The very next batter, Sahid Valenzuela grounded out into an RBI and Garza scored. Boone did his job with a sac fly to score Head and the Monarchs had their largest lead of the day. Boone talked about that at bat and mentioned, “It was just a team at bat, trying to get something up, hit a fly ball, let my swing takeover and let good things happen.”
The Canaries scored the final tally of the night in the sixth frame, but were shutdown the rest of the way as Tyler Myrick recorded his second save to finish the game.
It was the Monarchs sixth win in their past seven games and third straight over the Canaries. They now have a commanding 5.5 game lead over Sioux Falls in the West Division and will play the final game of the set tomorrow. First pitch is at 1:05 and will be the last game before the All-Star break
