by William Crum
The Kansas City Monarchs made a strong showing with a comeback attempt in the season opener on Tuesday night at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Monarchs dropped the opener 7-5 to the Lincoln Saltdogs, after getting behind by six runs early in the game, then almost catching up with an eighth inning rally to bring the score to 6-5.
Right-fielder Gabriel Guerrero made a huge impression for the Monarchs’ first regular season game, with a soaring solo home run in the seventh inning, followed by a three-run home run in the eighth inning.
Guerrero, from Paradise Valley, Arizona, went three for four with four runs batted in.
Before Guerrero’s eighth-inning home run, Jan Hernandez hit a single, scoring Darnell Sweeney for the Monarchs.
Winning pitcher Kyle Kinman of the Lincoln Saltdogs shut down the Monarchs in the first five innings of the game. James Pugliese got the save. Eric Stout took the loss for the Monarchs.
The Saltdogs’ Ryan Long hit a home run in the top of the sixth, and the score was then 6-0. A double by the Saltdogs’ Forrest Allday in the top of the ninth inning gave Lincoln another run, bringing Justin Byrd home and making the score 7-5.
On hand for the season opener, and the first game for the team under its new ownership, were Mayor David Alvey, who threw out the first pitch; as well as Gov. Laura Kelly, Unified Government Commissioners Brian McKiernan and Melissa Bynum, Sen. Pat Pettey, Bonner Springs Mayor Jeff Harrington and Edwardsville Mayor John McTaggart.
Despite rain and thunder in the opening minutes of the game, 3,687 people attended the season opener.
The next Monarchs game is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, against the Lincoln Saltdogs at Legends Field. For ticket information, see https://monarchsbaseball.com/.
Statistics for the game are online at http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=553022.
