by Kaitlyn Sanders, Monarchs
The roughly hour-long rain delay at the bottom of the third couldn’t stop the Kansas City Monarchs (25-11) from completing their sweep of the Sioux City Explorers (14-21) with a score of 8-1 on Thursday.
In the bottom of the first, Darnell Sweeney put the Monarchs on the board first with a home run up the center for the 1-0 lead.
Gaby Guerrero batted next, crushing another home run into the visiting bullpen in left field. The back-to-back home runs resulted in an early 2-0 lead.
The Monarchs seemed only capable of homers as Alexis Olmeda hit one out to the home run patio in the second inning to extend the lead to 3-0.
After the rain delay, the Explorers put their first run on the board in the fourth courtesy of Trey Martin. Danny Amaral put one out deep in right field for a triple before Martin hit a single to center field, grabbing an RBI and making the score 3-1 in the top of the fourth.
In the bottom of the sixth, the bases were loaded as David Thompson, Casey Gillaspie and Pete Kozma were all intentionally walked. Olmeda also walked for an RBI, bringing the score to 4-1. With a pitching change from Sioux City, Nate Gercken avoided any more runs on his line as he escaped with loaded bases.
Darnell Sweeney walked in the bottom of the seventh before Guerrero reached first with a high chopper to the pitcher. Thompson launched a home run to left field for a three-run home run to increase the Monarchs’ lead to 7-1.
In the eighth inning, Pete Kozma reached first on an error by the second baseman before Olmeda walked again. With a single to center field, Kevin Santa brought in Kozma for an RBI, adding to Kansas City’s buffer at 8-1.
The next Monarchs game is Friday, June 24, at Sioux Falls against the Sioux Falls Canaries. The away 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 aabaseball.tv.
Tickets to Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.