Monarchs Come Up Short in High-Scoring Affair with Goldeyes

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Kansas City, KS — There were 20 combined runs on Monday night, but the Goldeyes held on with an 11-9 win over the Monarchs at Legends Field.

It was a really difficult start for Kansas City as they dug themselves a 9-0 hole in the first three innings of the game. Winnipeg got the bats rolling early with a five-run second inning. Max Murphy grabbed a two-run RBI single and then with three runners on, Adam Hall sliced a bases-clearing RBI-triple to jump into an early advantage.

The Goldeyes continued to put together an electric start and with two outs, Jiandido Tromp and Murphy hit back-to-back homers to jump into a 7-0 lead. Kevin Garcia doubled and then Ray-Patrick Didder cranked a two-run shot and it was all Winnipeg in the opening third.

Even though KC was down nine, they showed their resilience by illustrating an immediate response in the bottom of the third inning. Peyton Holt grabbed a knock, JD Davis doubled, and Hudson Head sent a grounder up the middle to get the Monarchs on the board. One batter later, Luken Baker blasted a three-run jack to cut the lead back to four in the blink of an eye.

 

KC continued to chip away as they tallied a run in the fourth and sixth. In the fourth inning, Holt doubled and got all the way to third which allowed Sahid Valenzuela to ground out into an RBI. Two frames later, Vega crossed home plate on the second RBI grounder from Valenzuela.

With seven unanswered Monarch runs, this was a 9-7 ballgame heading into the eighth. Winnipeg got on the board for the first time since the third inning when Adam Hall lined a ball up the middle to score Murphy.

There was a quick response from KC in the bottom of the frame as Valenzuela scored on an RBI groundout from Hudson Head. They got the lead within one when Baker drove a grounder up the middle and Holt scored for the third run of the day. Holt talked about his day and said, “We didn’t go out as well we wanted to, got off to a bad start being down eight or nine. You have to take pride in every pitch, every time I came up as a leadoff , I know we are down so you have to get on base, and let the big bats drive me in. I took pride in my approach, it worked out in the best way possible, and an unfortunate ending.”

Ramon Bramasco earned an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a solo homer to left field while the Monarchs could not find a way to put up two runs in the bottom of the inning and lost the opening game of the series. Game 2 will be played tomorrow at 6:35 at Legends Field.