Monarchs Win Streak Halted at Six
Kansas City, KS — After a four-day All-Star break, the Monarchs returned to action to take on the back-to-back league champions, the Kane County Cougars and fell 11-7 on Friday night.
The Cougars struck first when they added a pair of runs in the second. Claudio Finol led off with a single and Alex McGarry walked to put two runners on. They were sent home when Nick Dalesandro connected on an RBI single and Sam Dexter drove in McGarry on a sac fly.
It didn’t take long for the Monarchs to illustrate a response as they got the bats rolling in the bottom half of the inning. Austin Callahan and Saul Garza both opened up their nights with a base hit which allowed Hudson Head to send Callahan home on a line drive into left. Trevor B0one wasted no time making his impact known as he launched a three-run bomb to left field to give KC a 4-2 advantage, but this would be their only lead of the night.
Both teams traded punches in the first four innings and Kane County drove in five tallies in the third. The first five batters all crossed home plate for the Cougars in the frame. After three-straight walks, McGarry grabbed a two-run RBI single while Dexter and Zane Spinn both drove in runners. The Monarchs quickly found themselves down 7-4 and were searching for a response.
Unfortunately, Kane County had more left in store as they continued to muscle in runs in the fourth inning. Matt Botcher and Claudio Finol both got on base and McGarry earned his third RBI. The cougars added two more runs to close out the frame and take a 10-4 lead.
The Monarchs bullpen really struggled, but a bright spot out of the pen was Platte City, MO native Sawyer Allen. The southpaw made his debut in the fifth inning and went four innings with six punch outs. Allen talked about playing in his first professional game and said, “To come in here first day, I didn’t 100% expect to get in the game, but you never know so I knew I had to be ready. I knew (to) just get in there, throw strike one and go from there. Just work on what I have been doing the past couple years at Central Missouri, being able to throw strikes and pound the zone.”
Head was able to cross home plate in the fourth inning via fielders choice. Luken Baker nuked a solo shot in the 8th while Trevor Boone went yard for the second time in the game with another home run. Boone finished the day 3-4 with two homers and talked about his approach “Put a good pitch and put a good swing on it.”
It was too little too late for KC as Kane County already built a sizable lead. Both the top two pitchers will go toe-to-toe tomorrow night as the Monarchs, Ryan Garcia (8-2, 2.11 ERA) and Kane County’s, Konnor Ash (4-5, 2.11 ERA) will battle it out for the second game of the series. First pitch is at 6:35 and the Monarchs will look to even the series.
