Monarchs Survive Late Scare, Winners of Six-Straight
Kansas City, KS — The Monarchs got the job done on Sunday afternoon with a 6-4 win to complete the four-game series sweep over the Sioux Falls Canaries.
Just as they have done so many times, Kansas City threw the first punch with a four-run second frame. Saul Garza opened up his afternoon with a base hit and shortly after, Sahid Valenzuela doubled into left field to put two runners in scoring position. There was a wild pitch thrown by Canaries pitcher, Christian Edwards, and Garza raced on home to crack the scoreboard. Grant Richardson grounded out into an RBI as Valenzuela scored. Later in the frame, Nick Martini smoked a two-run blast to right field for his sixth bomb of the season to give the Monarchs a comfortable early lead.
Sioux Falls orchestrated a response in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Trevor Achenbach collected a base hit and then Grady Mee launched one over the left field fence to cut the lead to two.
Former TCU product, Austin Krob earned the nod on the bump and had his best outing as a Monarch. He went 4.2 innings while allowing four runs, but shoved the zone with seven punch outs. It was a bullpen day for Kansas City as they went through five pitchers.
With the lead only being two, the Monarchs needed to add some insurance runs and they did exactly that in the sixth inning. Trevor Boone registered his only hit of the day while Valenzuela walked onto first. In the bottom of the order, Ryan Leitch ripped a line drive to left field to score Boone. Martini continued his red hot day with a base hit up the middle while Valenzuela glided home for his second run. It was a 6-2 lead, but the game was long from over. Leitch talked about facing this Canaries group and said, “It shows a lot about our team chemistry, we know going into it that they are the second place team and we got to get the job done. We go in there, we battle through it. It shows a lot of grit from our guys.”
The Monarchs looked like they were going to cruise to a four-run win, but Sioux Falls did not make it easy. In the ninth inning, Miguel Fulgencio stepped on the bump and struggled to find the zone. TJ Rachenbaumer walked followed by two-straight singles from Achenbach and Mee. The bases were loaded with no outs and the tying run was up at the plate. In came Lee Summit native, Nate Webb to try get out of the jam. Mike Hart walked and then Josh Rehwaldt grabbed a sac-fly and the lead was cut to just a pair with one out. Webb settled in and struckout Anthony Sharkas and then Anthony Hall flew out to end the game.
KC won seven of their past eight games in the home stand and with now with their sixth-straight win, the momentum is riding high into the All-Star Break. we They will be back in action starting Friday night with a weekend series at Legends Field against the Kane County Cougars.
