Like Riding a Bike

The mighty Monarchs used their offseason to rest, relax, and reload. So when the new summer season started the message was clear, "we are champions, so we don't have to try" encouraged RF Sean Lam in the pre-game huddle. New Monarch captain Jamie "Rhubarb" Sabid lost the season opening coin toss and the Monarchs were sent to the plate as the visiting team. However, the Monarchs were missing several players including Alicia and Lindsay Kurach, Kevin Wong, and Chris Dew. And because the Monarchs were missing both of the Kurach sisters, leaving them with only Amanda Sturies and Erin Melanson, the Monarchs should have been forced to have an automatic out in the batting order; luckily for the Monarchs, the Linaria Mustangs allowed them to forgo the out and simply rotate their ladies through the batting order and play with one less player in the field. A decision that may have cost them in the end.

The Monarchs won their new green and yellow T-shirts on the strength of a solid defence but turned the tide with their red hot batting. And the bats continued to rolls for the Monarchs as defending champions cruised to a 23-10 victory tuesday night. In the first inning the Monarchs recorded 6 runs while batting through the entire order. In the second, three more. However, the Linaria Mustangs were not about to roll over. They Mustangs changed the defensive and moved their RF to rover and strengthed the outfield significantly.

The Monarchs struggled through innings three and four recording zero runs. The Monarchs, despite playing with only nine players and without a rover, played galiantly in the opening three innings allowing the Linaria Mustangs two runs. The defence was anchored with solid defence by a displaced Brad Dingle, playing CF and not his normal R. The Monarch CF made two excellent plays, one was a long fly ball that appeared to be headed over Dingle's head but Brad ranged back and snagged the fly ball and sent it into second base for a double play. Another excellent effort by Dingle was in the third inning when a Mustang batter sent a hard shot into the gap between the two Dingle's. Brad was able to cover enough ground to make a spectacular stretching grab robbing the batter of atleast two bags. After three innings the Monarchs seemed to have a commanding 9-2 lead.

But in the fourth, the Mustangs were able to hold the Monarchs off the board for the second straight inning and the Monarchs collapsed with a terrible defensive half. The Monarchs had their traditional error-filled inning and allowed the maximum seven runs. The outfield was unable to make key plays and the infield was marred by a few overthrown sure outs. The score after four was 9-9. But the Monarchs flexed their champion muscles.

The Monarchs quickly put the fourth inning behind them and struck back with two runs in the top of the fifth. The resurgence was helped by great hitting from Erin Melanson, who ripped two or three balls out of the infield, and Amanda Sturies, who recovered from a rough start at the plate. The ladies got on the bats and were instrumental in keeping innings alive. And the defence rebounded to its championship form. In the final three innings the defence stiffened up. Monarch all-star pitcher Simon Chan rejoined the team and struck out several batters, call-up Trevor Moore caught a rocket that looked like it was heading for Olympus, and Travis Dingle made an exceptional sliding catch to end the game, a catch that redeemed the fielder who had missed a few simple plays.

On offence the Monarchs caught fire. In the final three innings the Monarchs scored one, seven, and six runs respectively. The offence was lead by call-up Robin's, like Madonna, sixth inning home run and big hitting from Jamie Sabid, Trevor Moore, Sean Lam, Simon 'Chanpion' Chan and the Dingle brothers. And if you are keeping score at home, yes, everyone hit very well.

The Monarchs cruised to a 23-10 victory and a 1-0 record on the season. The team closed out a good Linaria Mustang team, a club that finished third overall in the spring, in time to avoid a severe storm and get to Boston Pizza in time to enjoy a cold beer and for Brad Dingle to hide his B.I.S.P.