In the bottom of the first, the Kansas City Monarchs wasted little time jumping out to an early lead after Jan Hernandez blasted a two-run shot into the bullpen in deep left-center for his fifth of the season on Wednesday.
On the hill, the Monarchs were led by newly acquired right-hander, Gregori Vasquez. Vasquez’s debut with Kansas City was one to remember as it came against his former team.
The hurler was persistent in the early going as he finished the first two innings without surrendering a hit. His performance stayed strong, only allowing five baserunners through his six innings.
Gary SouthShore was only able to scratch one run across on Vasquez, coming in the top of the sixth inning off Daniel Lingua’s groundout to first base that brought Tyler Van Marter home. Vasquez would finish his first start allowing just three hits, no walks, two strikeouts, and one unearned run.
Defensively, Gabby Guerrero helped his pitcher out by teaming up with catcher, Alexis Olmeda, to turn a score-preventing double play in the top of the fifth. Guerrero snagged a fly ball on the run in right field then immediately threw a missile to Olmeda, who tagged out Jesus Marriaga at the plate to complete the highlight-reel play.
Casey Gillaspie came up big for the Monarchs in the sixth inning, clobbering his sixth homer of the summer. The no-doubter brought in Hernandez and Guerrero, stretching the lead to four.
Cody Mincey, Elroy Urbina, and Brian Ellington worked together to finish the last three innings, only giving up one run in the eighth. The strong pitching performance, as well as the team’s two home runs served to be the recipe for success. The Monarchs notched their seventh straight win in 6-2 fashion.
Manager Joe Calfapietra spoke highly of his starter, Gregori Vasquez, saying, “You’re going to get a strike thrower, a guy that competes, and throws all of his pitches at any time in the strike zone.”
The Monarchs and RailCats will finish their three-game series at 7 p.m. Thursday at Legends Field. Kansas City will attempt a clean sweep. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:40 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.
- Story from Dan Vaughan, Monarchs