Kansas City, KS — The Monarchs were on fire offensively in the final game of the series as they provided 20 hits to go with an 18-3 thrashing over Kane County on Sunday afternoon.

After a scoreless first frame, KC got the bats started quickly in the second when Trevor Boone and Saul Garza both collected hits. The very next batter, Hudson Head, smashed a liner into right field to bring in the first two runs of the contest.

It was a big third inning for the Monarchs as JD Davis led off with a double. Austin Callahan brought him home on a base hit up the middle which was followed by a Luken Baker base hit. Prior to today, Boone had two homers in the series and then added his third with a deep drive over the left field wall. Kansas City got out to a quick 6-0 lead, but that was only just the beginning.

Just an inning later, Davis and Sahid Valenzuela both kickstarted the frame by getting on base. Callahan brought them home with his second RBI single of the afternoon. The line kept moving as Baker sent a big blast to register his 8th homer of the season and the Monarchs put up their second-straight four run inning.

The Monarchs starter, Jimmy Endersby had his best day as a Monarch on the mound as he went seven innings while only allowing three hits and recorded a season-high seven punch outs. He was inducing weak contact and made it very difficult for Kane County to get any sort of life on the offensive side.

Even though it was a 10-run lead, this team continued to produce runs when Ryan Leitch smacked a ball the opposite way to bring home Head who tripled earlier in the frame. In the 6th inning, Head would not be stopped and roped an RBI double into left center to score Boone. “We had a pretty good day, that first double I was looking to get runners on and try to get a ball up. Thats what happened, just been going towards it. The first two games didn’t go our way, but we put good swings on the ball and i’m happy with it.”

So many Monarchs joined in on the action, but it was a terrific day for Grant Richardson at the dish. He drilled two homers to go with a five RBI day. Richardson rocketed a ball the opposite way in the sixth and eighth inning. Valenzuela, Boone, Head, and Richardson all had three knocks and every player in the lineup grabbed a hit.

Despite losing the series, this was the best outing from the Monarchs at home this season with a 17-run win. This momentum will carry them into a seven-game road trip starting tomorrow night in Cleburne. They will take on the Railroaders for a four-game set and then to Sioux City for a weekend series.

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.

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

Kansas City, KS — It only took two innings for the Monarchs to take down the Railroaders as they grabbed a 5-2 victory to clinch the four-game set on Thursday night.

KC cracked the scoreboard in the third inning as Grant Richardson led off with an infield single. Then Brady Lindsly collected a base hit that brought up Nick Martini in the top of the order. The former Chicago Cub ripped a line drive on the first base line which scored Richardson. JD Davis did his job with groundout RBI to send in Lindsly and double the lead. Shortly after, Luken Baker continued his terrific play with an RBI double to bring home Martini. Baker has been red hot as of recent and says,”There were a couple pitches (and) a couple of bats that I wanted back tonight. Overall (it was) a good day to put good swings on the ball and get a win.”

The Monarchs would not stop there as they drove in a pair of tallies in the fourth frame. After Valenzuela and Richardson walked, Martini cranked a fly ball to left center to bring in both runners and the Monarchs jumped into a 5-0 advantage.

Cleburne would muscle in two tallies in the top of the fifth when Jonny Barditch and Mallex Smith both collected a base to open up the frame. With runners at the corners, Cole Foster grounded out and scored Barditch. Shortly after, Caleb McNeely smacked a line drive down the third base line to score the final Railroader run of the night.

Monarchs right hander, Jimmy Endersby made his seventh start on the bump and went 6.1 innings while allowing only two runs, but threw six punchouts. Endersby, Jeff Hakanson, and Tyler Myrick got out of timely jams and threw some huge strikeouts to only hold the Railroaders to two runs. Hakanson finished the eighth inning with two K’s and said, “(Was) just trying to get the ball in the zone. (It was) not ideal to create the bases loaded situation, but (Pitching Coach) Matt Hall came out there and Blind (Brady Lindsly) talked to me too and said I was doing too much with two strikes. Got ahead on a couple guys and was (doing) a little extra that I didn’t need. Just trusting my stuff and getting out of the jam.”

Cleburne came into the series with 11 wins in their past 12, but Kansas City took three of four off of them and only gave up two runs in the past two games. This defense continued to show why its the best in the league and will have a big four-game series against second place, Sioux Falls with a doubleheader tomorrow night. The first game is scheduled for 5:05 and the next game will start 30 minutes after.

Kansas City, KS – The Monarchs were propelled by a four-run third inning with the help of spectacular pitching and held on to win game three of the series, 4-0, on Wednesday afternoon.

Austin Hansen got his 11th start in the season and got things going immediately, only facing 11 batters through his first three innings of work, giving up two hits in the process. He finished the afternoon with a three K performance in five and 2/3 innings on the bump.

The Monarchs’ offense came alive in third frame with a leadoff solo homer from Ryan Leitch that skied over the home run patio to get the scoring started. It did not stop there, as just a batter later Nick Martini lined a pitch up the middle for a base hit, Luken Baker tallied his second hit of the night, advancing Martini to third. Austin Callahan stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners, looking to bring a guy in. “I knew walking up with runners on the corners, I needed to find a way to get at least one home,” Callahan said. He did more than that as he found a pitch upstairs and drilled it over the right center field wall for a three-run home run that gave the Monarchs a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

Kansas City continued to get it done on the defensive with reliever, Jacob Gomez. He had his best outing of the season where he went 1.2 innings while allowing no outs and three strikeouts. Gomez came on in the sixth frame and talked about what worked for him, “(The) top shelf fastball is something I have been struggling with recently. I was talking to (Pitching Coach) Matt Hall about it and so all my swing and misses were top of the zone so I used that today and got a lot of success with it.”

Tyler Myrick finished out the game when he struck out the final batter, Mason Minzey. The Monarchs only allowed six hits while leaving eight railroader runner stranded. It was yet another terrific performance on both sides of the plate and they showed why they have a top three ERA in the league. These teams will look to finish out the four-game set tomorrow night with a 6:35 first pitch.