by Gabriel Lopez, Monarchs
Fargo, North Dakota — It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The Kansas City Monarchs (40-22) finished strong Sunday afternoon against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (41-21), defeating them 10-7.
The Monarchs were down five runs through six innings of baseball. A late nine-run seventh inning propelled Kansas City over Fargo-Moorhead, which still sits in first in the West Division.
The RedHawks didn’t waste any time early. In the bottom of the first, Peter Maris worked a walk. Leobaldo Pina followed with an RBI-double to left center field. A few batters later, Rymer Liriano walked to bring up Ben Livorsi who roped a double to score two more runs for Fargo-Moorhead and give them an early 3-0 lead.
J.C. Escarra hammered a two-out double in the top of the second, but the Monarchs couldn’t bring him in as they still trailed by three runs.
The RedHawks continued to add onto their lead. After Nick Novak singled to left field, he quickly stole second base. Evan Alexander worked a walk to bring Peter Maris to the plate.
Maris tallied an RBI-single to right field to score Novak. Pina followed up the at-bat with an RBI of his own. After two innings of baseball, the RedHawks led 5-0 over the Monarchs.
Davis Feldman started on the mound for the RedHawks. He earned a quality start, allowing three runs through six innings of work.
In the seventh inning, the Monarchs’ offense got hot. After Casey Gillaspie walked, Chad De La Guerra belted a two-run bomb to cut Kansas City’s deficit to three runs.
Following the long ball, Escarra, Pete Kozma, and Willie Abreu all collected hits to bring another run home and make it a 3-5 ballgame. Kevin Santa roped an RBI-single to right field to make it 4-5.
The Monarchs tied the game at five when Casey Gillaspie worked a bases-loaded walk, collecting his fourth walk of the day. Kansas City added four more insurance runs and finished the seventh with seven hits, four walks, nine runs and a 9-5 lead over the RedHawks.
In the top of the eighth inning, David Thompson hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Darnell Sweeney and extend Kansas City’s lead, 10-5.
The RedHawks closed the gap in the bottom of the eighth as they scored two runs on RBIs from Nick Novak and Christian Correa. After eight innings of play, the Monarchs led 10-7 over the RedHawks.
Jameson McGrane entered the match in the bottom of the ninth. McGrane retired three straight RedHawks to end the game and earn his 11th save of the year.
The Monarchs are back in action for a three-game homestand against the Sioux Falls Canaries at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, at home at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas.
The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aa baseball.tv.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.