Monarchs Overcome Injuries to Beat Short Stops

The Monarchs continued their chances at the perfect season improving to a 2-0 record with a 24-4 victory over the Short Stops. Although the team suffered injuries in the first few innings from SS Amanda Sturies and LF D.J. Robinson, the teams offence was able to pick the team up despite having a few difficulties in the field.

The Monarchs' offence was powered by homeruns by Travis Dingle (1) and Simon "Ichiro" Chan (1) in the victory and many believed the turning point in the game to be a heart and soul sprint to first base by Leslie Hierath ending in a photo-finish slide to keep the inning alive. The Monarchs were able to score seven runs in three consecutive innings in order to close out the Short Stops. Once the Monarchs offence sparked in the third inning there was no looking back. The high powered Monarchs closed out the Short Stops, a team seeking some chemistry in back to back loses of a combined 51-11, in the fifth inning after registering the maximum seven runs on a Chan three person home run.

The Monarchs were not without a few problems however. After capping the score with a 20 run differencial the defence allowed 7 runs to the Short Stops in the sixth on sloppy defensive play. The team believes that these defensive errors will shore up once the team gets more innings under their belts.

With an already short bench missing the power of CF Travis Bouchard and special ability of LF Priscilla Ivana LaDouche, the Monarchs were forced to deal with a devastating lose of SS Amanda Sturies. Sturies suffered a thigh injury in the bottom of the first inning forcing her to leave the game and cheer from the sidelines. The loss of Sturies left the team with the manditory nine players and when D.J. Robinson suffered a leg injury in the second the team was forced to shift the defence and move Robinson behind the plate and C Mark Morris to LF.

Coming off a 23-13 victory over Rice the Monarchs proved that their offence is more than a Mom and Pop show and is truly something to be feared as the temperature warm up and the day run longer.

The game was one-sided and the Monarchs proved that they are the class of the league with excellent performances by the Danger Twins, Alicia Kurach and Erin Melanson, working together like they had been playing together for years at 1B and 2B. On the other side of the infield was the flashy combination of 3B Russell Loga and SS Simon Chan. Everytime the ball was hit to this side of the field the crowd roared in excitement knowing that a spectacular bare-hander or glove pass was about to come. Rounding out the infield was C Mark Morris and injured C D.J. Robinson. The two split the duties behind the plate but had their work cut out for them as the Short Stops decided to play small-ball often hitting rollers between the catcher and the pitching mound. These two player did and excellent job controlling the action of the infield. Moving to the outfield the Monarchs were high in talent but low in action as the Short Stops were regularly hitting rollers to 2B or SS. However, when the ball was in the air the team knew that they could depend on RF Adam Dingle, CF Travis Dingle, LF D.J. Robinson, replacement RF Mark Morris and R Leslie Hierath.

Finally the team learned that they had plenty of heart as Robinson fought for his pride and for all that was right in rec league slo-pitch in numerous verbal tiffs with a certain member of the Short Stops only to be remembered as "Crazy Bandana Dog Lady". The wit and knowledge of the ESSC rules that Robinson showed will definately earn him a few more games in the Bigs.

Goodnight Now,
Travis Dingle