by Gabriel Lopez, Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs (5-4) ended their ninth straight home game with a loss to the Chicago Dogs (4-5) on Sunday afternoon, 4-1.
With wins Friday and Saturday night, the Monarchs took two of three games, winning the series against the Dogs.
On Buck O’ Neil Day at Legends Field, the Dogs wasted no time as they scored quickly in the first inning when Michael Crouse hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Charlie Tilson.
Both teams had several opportunities to score throughout the next five innings.
In the sixth inning Cosimo Cannella lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Ryan Lidge. Harrison Smith followed this up by hitting a ball to the wall. Joel Booker had a great jump on the hit but was unable to make the tough play as Anfernee Grier scored.
The Dogs finished the inning with Smith crossing the plate for an unearned run, giving them a 4-0 lead.
After no prior run production on the day, the Monarchs finally got on the board in the eighth inning as Jan Hernandez reached base due to an error made by Canella at third. Casey Gillaspie followed this at-bat with a single into the outfield. A hard line drive single by Pete Kozma drove in Hernandez to bring in the first run for the Monarchs as they trailed 4-1.
In the ninth inning, Jeff Kinley retired Joel Booker, Darnell Sweeney and Matt Adams to lead the Dogs to victory over the Monarchs.
The Dogs finished the game with 11 runners left on base while the Monarchs stranded 12.
The Monarchs will be back in action for game one against Gary SouthShore at 6:45 p.m. Monday, May 23. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:20 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.