Reprint with permission by Press Publications
Written by Mark Griffin    

The Ohio Monarchs Gold summer college baseball team will get to defend their championship at next month's LineDrive Sportz NABF College World Series presented by BCSN in Toledo.

"We're always talking about going back and winning it again," said Cory Hornyak, a 2006 Genoa graduate who pitches and plays outfield for the Monarchs. "That would be a big thing for us to do. No one's ever done it, so we're hoping to be the first."

This year's NABF World Series will be held Aug. 6-9 at Ned Skeldon Stadium, Owens Community College, Bowman Park and the University of Toledo's Scott Park.

After coming off a split with the Michigan Monarchs on Thursday the Gold team hosted Shannon Fence on Saturday and Canton Terriers on Sunday at Carter Park in Bowling Green. Gold dropped the first game to Shannon Fence 2 to 9, but came back to win the second game of the double header 9 to 5. Gold then came back on Sunday and swept Canton Terriers 5 to 3 in both games.

In the first game against Shannon, Gold couldn’t get their sticks going as they only had two hits by Brian Bilius and Jake Cappeletty for the offense. Shannon racked up 9 hits to score their 9 runs. Gold came back strong in the second game with 8 hits. In the first inning Kyle O’Connell led off with a single and was moved around the bases by Brian Bilius. Cory Hornyak then hit a hard shot single to score both O’Connell and Bilius to put Gold on the board with two runs. 

The Ohio Monarchs Gold swept the Michigan Monarchs in two close competitive games at Bowman field Wednesday. Gold shutout Michigan both games winning the first game 3 to 0 and the second game 2 to 0 .The pitching was rock solid on both sides with Josh Stidham (6-0) pitching an awesome 5 1/3 innings for the Gold and holding the Michigan Monarchs to just one hit with 6 strikeouts, while Bret Kuebler came in to close the game in his usual fashion and secured the shutout. Michigan’s Ludwig threw a 4 hitter in his 5 innings of pitching.

The Monarchs Gold had a perfect week by winning 6 straight games, including two wins over top ranked JL Thomas on July 5th.

Gold started their week on Tuesday (6-30) with a decisive win over NWO Dirt Devils 18 to 1 in five innings. Gold had 11 hits and the pitching was led by Josh Stidham (no hits) and relieved by Garcia, Kuebler, and Peffley holding the Dirt Devils to only 2 hits. McFarland (3 hits), Cappeletty, and Kuebler led the offense with 7 of the 11 hits.