In the season opener the Ohio Monarchs Gold rallied from a one run deficit to beat the NWO Dirt Devils 9 to 3 at Joe E Brown. The Dirt Devils were held to only 3 runs by strong pitching from Matt Kaighin, Josh Stidham, and Derrick Garcia. Kaigan started on the mound allowing only 2 earned runs. Stidham entered in relief in the fourth and shut down the Dirt Devils with some awesome pitching. Stidham struck out 5 and walked no one. Garcia closed the game out in the 7th striking out two and not allowing the Dirt Devils any hits.

Monarchs Gold scored 2 runs in the second inning with hits by Cappelletty, Hornyak, Salinski, and Mouch, but was held scoreless until the seventh inning. Salinski led off the seventh with a single then stole second base. Adam Yunker then singled up the middle and scored Salinski to tie the game. From that point the rally was on. Yunker stole second and Lehman scored Yunker for the go ahead run on a double to right field. Helldobler went to first after being hit by pitch, stole second and scored on a hit by Bilius. The Monarchs Gold continued with a total of 7 runs in the seventh and then held the Dirt Devils in the bottom of the seventh with a strong performance by Garcia.