The Monarchs were looking to put the lost spirit point behind them and begin with a fresh start. The lost spirit point and their one loss have accumulated to 3 points in the standings, with another loss the Monarchs could find themselves in danger. The Monarchs have to remain in the top 4 in order to reach the top playoff bracket and have a chance to play for the coveted 'T-Shirt'. "We should just tank it into fourth place so we can play the top team first, really send a message to the league when we win" Sean Lam said at post-game beers. And Tuesday night the Monarchs began the game as though the Lam had already told them this information. The Monarchs took first bats in the game and managed to bring one run across home plate. A modest start for the offence who has struggled to just 33 runs over three games. But the normally solid defence was no where to be found in the bottom half of the inning. "Practice inning" Fran Hughston exclaimed as she tried to rally the team from a terrible 7 run inning.
The defence was poor in the first inning with the team committing several crucial fielding errors. Amanda Sturies in an attempt to assist on an out at second base threw both the ball and he glove toward 2B Jamie Sabid. "Fundamentally poor, I wasn't happy for most of the game" P Simon Chan commented. But the Monarchs weren't about to let a bad first inning stop their run to the playoffs. The Monarchs rallied back with seven runs of their own in the top of the second. The Mustangs pitcher threw a plethora of pitches at the Monarch batters, "isn't it illegal to throw pitches so high" one Monarchs asked. The pitcher seemed to have a repertoire that limited Monarch batters to several infield hits; Yet their power allowed them to escape the infield. With seven runs of their own the Monarchs were back on top with a 8-7 lead.
However, the bottom of the second brought more of the same for the Monarchs. Again the team was hampered by several key mistakes that helped the Mustangs record another 4 runs. "Dropped fly's, call-offs, missed balls, we were beating ourselves" Brad Dingle recalls. However the Monarchs seemed to have more resolve than expected on a night when they could have easily rolled over and died. The Monarchs showed their league best defence and limited the Mustangs to only 2 more runs in the final five innings. "We just put one solid inning together with another, and another" Travis Dingle said. The Mustangs despite a hot start would only be able to record 13 runs in seven innings, a record allowed against the Monarchs this season.
It was gut-check time when the defence came through. Inspired by her 'cute' new cleats SS Amanda Sturies recorded a clutch unassisted double play after fielding a roller into the SS area tagging up on second base and sending a laser to first ahead of the runner. Brad Dingle saved the game in the bottom of the seventh with a diving catch to record the first out, Jamie Sabid turned another DP in a later inning, Chan found his grove on the mount and the Monarchs began to fire on all cylinders. The defence made the adjustments that they had to make to shut down the Mustang offence, an offence that had recorded 61 runs in their four previous games. One key decision was to shift the Rover into a shallow LF position, "We noticed that they weren't hitting with a lot of power, and many of their hits were dropping in so we shifted the rover" said LF Travis Dingle. The moved seemed to pay off as the Rover was in position to stop many balls from 'getting too deep' and stopped base runners on first.
The Monarchs bats also came alive. There was clutch hitting up and down the order anchored by an impressive outing by the lady Monarchs. Missing from the line-up was Alicia Kurach, in her absence Amanda Sturies, Erin Melanson, and Fran Hughston batted in a rotation through the four female batter spots. "I remember thinking "Oh, DJ has to bat with two outs, tough position to be in" then two batters later I was up" Sturies said speaking about the big seventh inning by Monarch batters.
Coming into the bottom of the seventh inning the Monarch found themselves tailing 13-10 and in need of three runs to tie the game forcing a bottom half of the inning; however, the Monarchs got more than three runs, recording six enroute to a 16-13 lead heading into the bottom half. "The offence came up big when it had to" 1B Erin 'Melly' Melanson boasts. The Monarchs batted masterfully through their line-up scoring six runs, one highlight was a pull by Brad Dingle just past the 1B for the Mustangs scoring a couple of Monarchs.
The Monarchs climbed to 3-1 with the victory and should find themselves in third fourth place this week, however, this is not true representation of the Monarchs as they have a game in hand over all of the higher ranking teams. The Monarchs have been lucky this season as their have been few injuries to speak of this season, it appears as though many of the players played for the ESSC Dodgeball Champion Team Gallo, and have avoided 'Monarch Thigh'. However, the first injury has creeped up on the Monarchs with Russell Loga being limited to DHing duties with what the organization is calling an 'upper body injury'.
The editor would like to apologise to everyone out in 'Monarch Land' for the delay in recapping last nights game. The delay was cause due to the writer having to postpone the recap as he welcomed a new member to the Monarch family. We at Monarch head office would like you all to know the new member is alert and properly working inside 'Dingle Apartment'. I would like to introduce to you all to Mr. Airconditioner-tron.
Isn't he wonderful, a little rotund I guess!
