Monarchs Dig Deep against Mud Hen to Stay Perfect

Despite learning minutes before the game that the Monarchs had potentially lost All-Star C Mark Morris for the year the team was able to colect themselves and take to the field for their game against the Mud Hens Monday night. And facing a team with a -4 differencial and a 1-2 record the Monarchs were able to propel themselves to victory with a season high 3 HR effort by the offense and hot gloves by the defense. Plus they team was looking hot sporting their new Athletic Knit jerseys!

The team has send C Mark Morris to see a specialist in Cuba in a last ditch effort to get catcher back in time for the playoffs however the outlook right now is cloudy. Officially Mark has been placed on the 15-day. Also missing from last night's line-up, excluding hold-outs Jeff Beaton, Steve Shaw and Kristen Poohkay, were Leslie Hierath and Russell Loga. While the return of Loga is not expected for another few weeks, Hierath was missing for last nights line-up in order to be with injured Monarch Mark Morris.

With all of these players missing however the Monarchs were able to field a very competitive team. Last night all three Dingle's took to the field and the Danger Twins were reunited (and it felt so good).

The Mud Hens did an excellent job all night dropping the ball into the holes in the defence, which debuted its four outfielder shift, but the Monarchs were also solid defensively counting on big catches by RF Chris Dew and 2B Erin Melanson. The infield was also anchored by big throws from 3B/SS Simon Chan, and SS/3B Amanda Sturies. 'International Corner' as the team are calling the Italian and Chinaman duo made smart plays all night with big catches, big outs, and great teamwork. The Monarchs were also pleased to get its first out from the C position. And for all you trivia fans out there the correct answer to 'who got the Monarchs first out as a catcher?'-Brad Dingle.

In the outfield RF Chris Dew was the rock even though the team often left him on an island by himself. But also R Travis Dingle had a big catch and LF D.J. Robinson showed off his big arm often making precision throws into the infield to stop runners. Also in the outfield last night was CF Adam Dingle who was solid defensively, so solid he could even defend the reason it took him an hour to get to post game beers.

Rounding out the defence was team captain Travis Bouchard. Although he only recorded one out defensively at 3B he moved around thoughout the game almost playing every postion. Bringing instant strength to that area of the field.

Offensively the HR race heated up with a big 2 HR game by Simon Chan (3), and a 1 HR game from Travis Dingle (3), and Brad Dingle (1) getting his first. The Monarchs used timely hitting by all of their players and mixed up the long ball with a helping of small ball. The team scored runs in all of their innings and the team also showed killer instict after tying the game to never look back. Although there were no 'infield fly' disputes or slides into second the offense was still plenty exciting for the teams only spectator Ryan 'Redlight' Robinson.

This game also marked the first week inwhich there were no verbal disputes with the other team. Both teams played well and played hard. Although one fiery Italian, not to be named, did tell the Mud Hens firstbase player to 'F' off, (although she used the full word but parent read this and I intend to uphold some journalistic integrity).

Next week the Monarchs have thier home-opener against the Perfect Pitch @Malmo fieldhouse (115 st - 48 ave)