by Caleb Grizzle, Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs (8-6) won the series opener of a home three-game series against the Sioux Falls Canaries (5-9) in commanding fashion Friday night, 15-5.
Friday night’s contest started with back-to-back blasts over the left field fence for the Canaries. Osvaldo Martinez and Kona Quiggle put the Canaries up 2-0 with their solo home runs in the first inning.
The Canaries’ early momentum slowed for a moment with two groundouts to close the first frame. The Canaries added to their early lead in the top of the second inning with two one-out singles and an RBI triple from Wyatt Ulrich, pushing their lead to 4-0.
The Monarchs threatened early to respond to the Canaries’ offense with a deep center field warning track fly out from Gaby Guerrero in the bottom of the first. In the second inning, the Monarchs left two runners on base.
Jon Harris received the start for the Monarchs and recovered from the first two innings, holding the Canaries to one run the rest of his outing.
The Monarchs broke out of their scoreless start with a one-out triple from Willie Abreu in the third inning. Pete Kozma then flew out to bring Abreu home for the sacrifice fly RBI.
The Canaries extended their lead in the top of the fifth with an RBI double from Osvaldo Martinez.
The Monarchs had an explosive answer in the bottom of the fifth, starting with two walks and a single to load the bases with no outs. Abreu closed the gap, bouncing into a unassisted double play at first to cut the deficit to three runs.
Pete Kozma followed and came through in the clutch with a two-out RBI single to cut the lead to two. Guerrero tied it at 5-5 with a deep, fence-clearing blast to cap a game-changing half inning.
In the top half of the sixth, with two outs, the Monarchs called upon Jordan Martinson to provide relief on the mound and shut off any mounting Canaries’ momentum. Martinson carried the 5-5 tie into the bottom half of the sixth.
The Monarchs’ patience at the plate broke the tie in the home half of the seventh. The Monarchs manufactured two walks, a single and a hit by pitch to secure their first lead of the night, 6-5.
Casey Gillaspie followed the hit by pitch at bat with a sacrifice fly RBI. A wild throw brought in an extra run, bringing the score to 8-5.
In the eighth inning the Monarchs tacked on a plethora of insurance runs, stretching their lead to a comfortable 15-5. The Monarchs capped their dominant win with an acrobatic throw to first from J.C. Escarra.
The Monarchs will face the Sioux Falls Canaries in the second game of a three-=game series at 6 p.m. Saturday at Legends Field. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 5:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.