Monarchs Walk The Dogs In Opening Day Victory

Kansas City, KS — It was quite the evening for the Kansas City Monarchs as they opened up their 2026 home campaign with a 6-1 win over the Chicago Dogs, highlighted by a four-run inning.

It was a chilly night in Kansas City, but Monarch fans showed up and the team certainly came ready to put on a show.

Right handed pitcher, Austin Hansen got the start on the mound and he went five innings while giving up four hits, but grabbed two strikeouts. Following his opening day start, he said, “It was fun to be out there again, I haven’t pitched in awhile because i’ve been hurt. It was fun to pitch in front of my family, Brady (Lindsly) called a really good game and keeping hitters off-balance all day, it was fun.”

The scoring broke open in the bottom of the third when Lindsly singled to open up the frame. Later in the inning, the hometown kid, Marcus Smith laced a ball into right field for an RBI triple which brought up Lindsly. Chicago responded in the top half of the fourth when first baseman, Chance Sisco cracked a solo homer to bring score level at one apiece.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Monarchs answered right back when Trevor Boone joined the party and laced an RBI double to left field which brought in Saul Garza to score. Kansas City took the lead for the second time in the evening, going up 2-1.

The game was put to bed in the sixth inning when Grant Richardson and Austin Callahan got on base. This brought in Boone who made his impact known once again as he tagged a second-straight RBI double to left field. Lindsly recorded a sac fly to bring in Callahan and then that brought up Alvaro Gonzalez. He perfectly timed the 2-0 pitch and belted a two-run homer to left field and brought the score to 6-1. Alvaro mentions, “I’m really excited, this team is (a) unit. We (will) keep working hard in the games.”

This four-run inning was all that was needed to put Chicago to bed in the first game of the series and Kansas City improves to 2-2 this season. The Monarchs gave up six hits, but only one run was scored which was their lowest conceded this season. These teams will go toe-to-toe for the second contest of the set. First pitch is at 6:35 at Legends Field.