Monarchs Book Their Ticket to Championship Series Behind 10-Run Performance

Kansas City, KS — It was a wild night at Legends Field as the the Monarchs got out to a hot start, never surrendered the lead, and outlasted the Redhawks with a 10-9 win to move on to the Finals.

If there was any momentum from Fargo’s win yesterday, KC quickly erased that by driving three runs in the opening frame. Tyler Gentry drew a walk while Austin Callahan collected a base hit. This brought up the big hitter in Luken Baker who absolutely smashed a three-run blast to open up the contest.

This continued in the second inning and with two down, Grant Richardson belted a solo homer to go up by four. Richardson made some unbelievable acrobatic catches in the outfield that saved a couple runs. He was a big piece on the defensive side tonight.

KC was shutting down Fargo and consistently driving in runs. In the third inning, Baker and Saul Garza each registered a base-hit while Sahid Valenzuela poked a sac-fly RBI to bring in Baker and Hudson Head perfectly hit a weak grounder that staying in the infield to bring in Garza. It was a 6-0 Monarchs lead after three frames, but it was a long way from over.

Fargo would crack the scoreboard in the top of the fourth as Eric Filia tallied a one-out double and then Matt Kroon drilled a two-run jack to cut into the deficit.

There was an immediate answer in the bottom of the frame when Tyler Gentry hit a line-drive homer into left field on the first pitch of the frame. Shortly after, Callahan doubled and Baker walked which allowed Garza to smack a liner into right center that brought home a pair of runs for an RBI triple. It was a 9-2 advantage and their largest lead this series.

Thaddeus Ward made his second start this series and went four innings while striking out two batters, but surrendered two runs. The Monarchs grabbed four more pitchers out of the bullpen with Jack Walker, Tyler Myrick, Emmanuel Chapman, and Durbin Feltman. It was Feltman who earned his second save in the series and the 11th of the year.

Just when the Monarchs had all the momentum, Fargo would not lie down so easily as they stormed back with a four-run fifth frame. Juan Fernandez and Eric Filia each grabbed a base-knock which allowed Jose Sermo to smoke a shot 442 feet to cut it to 9-5. Later in the inning, Tripp Clark brought home Matt Kroon and it was back to a four-run lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Hudson Head drilled an opposite field homer as KC scored all 10 runs in the first five innings. It was a dominant offensive of display and Fargo had no answer for this team early in the game.

The Redhawks plated a run in the seventh on a Tripp Clark RBI knock, but contrary to yesterday, it was the Monarchs who provided timely outs as Fargo had 10 runners stranded.

Durbin Feltman came on to close the game in the eighth and with two outs in the ninth, Brian Fuentes earned a base-hit. This brought in Tucupita Marcano who flared a fly ball into right field that went beyond the fence to cut the deficit to one. Fortunately, KC would take that final out and move on to the championship series.

It was a wild series between these two teams, but KC got their revenge and outlasted the Redhawks to earn their fifth finals appearance in franchise history. Baker mentioned, “It feels good, that’s why you play, you play to win it all. The competitor in you wants to win every game. We are about to go play a good Milwaukee team…I feel like we match up well.”

The Monarchs are 4-0 in the finals and will have a tall task vs the Milwaukee Milkmen. Both teams each took three wins off of each other to split the season series. First pitch is at 6:35 at Franklin Field on Monday night. Games 3-5 will be at Legends Field with the first home game on Thursday. Tickets are on sale now for the home matchups at tickets.monarchsbaseball.com