Monarchs Gold beat the Trojans on Tuesday night in a nail biter that was just one strike away from extra innings. It took a walk-off single from Corey Lehman to finally seal the deal. Frustrated with his 0-3 performance so far in the game, Lehman stepped up to the plate with the winning run on third and two outs. Two pitches later Ricky Lizcano was coming home and Lehman had belted a walk-off single into left for a 4-3 win.

The Monarchs struck first in this game, in the bottom of the fourth. Adam Yunker started the inning with a single, and promptly stole second. Brett Howard followed with an RBI double that directly hit third base and took a favorable bounce into left field. After Phil Brua walked, and Brian Bilius was hit by a pitch, Lizcano came up with the bases loaded and brought home Howard with an RBI single of his own. With the bases still loaded, the Monarchs were unable however to tack on a few extras leaving the damage done at 2-0.

Colin Meinzer took a no-hitter into the top of the seventh against the Orioles on Sunday for Monarchs Gold.

Meinzer cruised through six innings scattering only two walks and allowing his defense to make plays behind him. Corey Lehman and Brett Howard were involved in many of those defense plays including three consecutive hard-hit grounders in the fourth that hit the lip and forced the defenders to jump in order to reach them. Meinzer seemed to be putting the finishing touches on his no-no with two outs and a man on first, though the next batter laced a fly ball to left center. Despite the outfield’s diving efforts the ball dropped out of reach. The next O’s batter brought a runner in with a single before Meinzer closed the door. He finished with CG, 2H performance allowing the one run, while striking out five.

The Monarchs Blue continued their recent hot streak by beating the Orioles on Saturday 4-0.

Corey Cannon took the mound for the Monarchs and set the tone for the game by recording three strikeouts in the first. In the bottom half, Blue struck early. Michael Dushane sparked the scoring with a walk and a stolen base, and then came across for the first run on Ben Hammer’s RBI double. Matt Vannett followed with a walk, and a Josh White single loaded the bases. Stephen Torres brought home Hammer for the second run of the inning with an RBI single.

Blue’s bats went quiet after that struggling to put much of anything together over the next three innings, but they didn’t need to with Cannon picking them up from the mound. Cannon seemed to find his groove eliminating the Oriole’s batters as he continued to post zeros inning after inning.

The Monarchs were able to capitalize on the Oriole’s mistakes in the bottom of the fifth. Fahle walked to start the inning. Nick Welling then laid down the bunt to third, but the 3rd baseman sailed the throw into foul territory allowing Michael Fahle to score and Welling to reach all the way to third. A couple pitches later, Welling scored on a passed ball to bring the score to 4-0.

The O’s threatened though in the top of the sixth having runners on second and third with only one out. Cannon masterfully worked out of the jam though with a strikeout followed by a soft ground ball out. Cannon finished with a CG shutout with 11 K’s as the Monarchs won by a final score of 4-0.

Blue’s next game will be against the Ohio Trojans on Tuesday.

As the weather continues to heat up, so do the Monarch’s bats. Monarchs Gold were at it again on Saturday as they knocked out the Allegheny Athletics by a final score of 5-1.

The game was tight early as both teams struggled to get runners into scoring position. Scoreless through three innings, the Monarchs began to break through in the bottom of the fourth. It started with Drew Kuns’ towering solo home run to straight away center field. Jake Cappelletty followed with a flair single to right, and Casey Winckowski belted the second home run of the inning on a dead laser to left, bringing home Cappelletty and running the score to 3-0. The Monarchs almost tacked on more with runners on second and third, but were unable to bring them across, keeping the Athletics within striking distance.

The Athletics did just that in the top of the sixth by plating one and closing the lead to 3-1.
The Monarchs however quickly changed that in the bottom of the inning. Cappelletty led off the inning with a broken-bat single, followed by a hit-by-pitch for Howard, and single by Winckowski. With the bases loaded, one out, and the Athletics infield playing on the grass for the play at home, Brian Bilius hammered a hard grounder towards short resulting in a RBI fielder’s choice, as Cappelletty scored and Brett Howard was put out at third. Eric Yunker continued the inning with a two out RBI single to bring home Winckowski. Gold closed out with a scoreless seventh resulting in a final score victory of 5-1.

The Monarchs also sported their new red uniforms for the first time in Tri-State league play.

Gold’s next game will be against Monarchs Blue at 5/3 field on Wednesday at 6:30.