MONARCHS DANCE TO COMMANDING VICTORY

In back-to-back nights the Monarchs have surrendered the lead in the early innings but have stayed resilient. The Dogs were able to force Monarchs starter Lewis Thorpe (1-1) into pitching 24 pitches in the opening inning and scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Grant Kay (1-0). The shuffled and strong lineup for Kansas City responded right away after Willie Abreu’s leadoff double, and a pair of fielder’s choices. Jan Hernandez also drove in a run with a single through the left side (3-1).

Lewis Thorpe came back in the second inning with a completely different demeanor. The Melbourne, Australia native went on to retire nine batters in a row, six of them strikeouts. Thorpe was dialed in and stayed on top of the Dogs lineup. He finished the evening with 5IP, 2H, 1ER, 2BB, 9K.

That momentum carried over to the offensive side of things as six different Monarchs recorded a multi-hit game. Atop of that list was CF Willie Abreu who went 3-for-4 with three RBI, and was just a triple shy of the cycle.

The fourth inning was the four-leaf clover inning for the Monarchs, scoring six runs on eight hits. David Thompson recorded two hits in the inning as Kansas City sent 11 batters to the plate.

Willie Abreu capped off the night with a towering two-run homer to stretch the lead to 11-1 in the home half of the eighth. The Dogs would scratch out one run in the ninth as Kansas City closed the “green” night out with an 11-2 win.

The Monarchs will play game three against Chicago tomorrow (5/22) at 3:00 p.m. with the gates opening at 1:00 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 2:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.

Tickets to all Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting  monarchsbaseball.com.  For additional information or interview requests, members of the media may contact the Monarchs Media Relations Department at (817) 739-3693. Stay tuned to monarchsbaseball.com. and the Monarchs Facebook and Twitter pages for updates throughout the season.