Monarchs 4, Cougars 5 – Box Score
The Kane County Cougars (39-36) swept the Kansas City Monarchs (46-28) Sunday afternoon as they defeated the Monarchs 5-4 at Northwestern Medicine Field.
Kansas City got on the scoreboard first when CF Mallex Smith scored from third base on a throw down to second from C B.J. Lopez.
The Monarchs added two more runs in the fifth inning when LF Jacob Robson notched a 2-RBI double to give Kansas City a 3-0 lead over the Cougars.
Kane County scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth when 3B Alexis Pantoja drove in two runs. Neither team scored for the next two innings and after seven innings of baseball, the Monarchs led 3-2.
DH Matt Adams hit a solo home run for the Monarchs in the top of the eighth to give Kansas City a 4-2 lead. However, the Cougars scored runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 5-4 lead.
Kansas City trailed by one run entering the top of the ninth. With two outs, three straight Monarchs reached base to load the bases for 3B David Thompson. Thompson was retired to end the game as the Cougars defeated the Monarchs for the fourth straight game in a row.
Canaries 1, RailCats 3 – Box Score
The Gary SouthShore RailCats (31-44) defeated the Sioux Falls Canaries (29-43) 3-1 Sunday afternoon at U.S. Steel Yard.
The Canaries took an early lead in the second inning when RF Aaron Takacs hit a solo home run to make it 1-0. Takacs finished his day 3-4.
The RailCats took the lead in the fifth inning. C Thomas Greely hit a ball to P Tyler Garkow who made an error resulting in two runs for Gary SouthShore. The RailCats brought across one more run when CF Nate Scantlin hit an RBI-single to center field.
Garkow earned a quality start for the Canaries. He allowed two earned runs through six innings while collecting five strikeouts.
SP Chris Erwin earned a quality start as well for the RailCats. He threw six innings allowing just one run.
Saltdogs 3, RedHawks 4 – Boxscore
After coming off a doubleheader loss to Lincoln on Saturday, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (48-26) rebounded on Sunday for a 4-3 win over the Lincoln Saltdogs, in front of a crowd of 2,481 on a cool afternoon at Newman Outdoor Field.
Tyler Grauer (7-3) got the start for the RedHawks in his 16th game of the season. The lefty, who is 4th in the American Association in ERA (.343) was looking for a win after not getting a decision in his last three games. But the resilient Saltdogs (34-41) got the first run of the game when Jason Rogers hit a single that scored Ryan Long and took an early 1-0 lead in the first. Lincoln’s Zach St. Pierre got the nod for his first career professional start and pitched two scoreless innings, giving up only two runs (none earned), on four hits in five innings of work.
The RedHawks would come back and take a 2-1 lead in the third, when Leo Pina hit a two-out RBI single that scored Christian Correra and Peter Maris. Lincoln would come back to tie the game on right fielder Welington Dotel’s RBI single in the 4th and Rogers’ second RBI of the game, a sacrifice fly to give the Saltdogs a 3-2 lead in the 5th.
It was another back-and-forth game, as the RedHawks tied the game on Sam Dexter’s two-out RBI single in the 6th and Peter Maris’ two-out RBI single in the 7th would give the lead back to the RedHawks. Grauer didn’t factor the decision again as he pitched six innings, struck out seven and allowed three earned runs on seven hits.
Fargo-Moorhead went to the bullpen in the 7th when Luke Lind came in for his 37th appearance of the year. Lind came out and cooled off the Saltdogs scoring, only allowing two hits and no runs in one inning of work. RedHawks manager Chris Coste limited his relief pitchers by only having Lind, Joe Jones and Alex DuBord pitch one inning each. Jones came in the top of 8th and only gave up one hit and no runs as DuBord would come in the top of the 9th and shutdown Lincoln by allowing no hits and no runs to pick up his 19th save of the season. Luke Lind (6-2) would get the win as Lincoln’s David Zoz (3-2) was given the loss by allowing two earned runs on four hits in two innings pitched.
Goldeyes 8, Milkmen 10 – Boxscore
The Milwaukee Milkmen defeated the Winnipeg Goldeyes 10-8 at Franklin Field Sunday afternoon.
Trailing 7-4 in the eighth inning, Milwaukee (40-34) rallied to score six times. Back-to-back doubles by Miguel Gomez and Keon Barnum cut the Goldeyes’ lead to two runs before a bases-loaded walk issued to Logan Trowbridge scored Barnum to make it a one run game. Jeremiah Burks then hit a full-count grand slam to give Milwaukee a 10-7 lead.
The Goldeyes (42-32) kept battling in the top of the ninth inning however, and after Raul Navarro came home on a Max Murphy sacrifice fly to right field, brought the go-ahead run to the plate with one out before being retired to end the ballgame.
The Milkmen opened the scoring in the first inning when Byran Torres scored on Gomez’ sacrifice fly to left field, then went ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the second on Torres’ two-out single to left that drove in Aaron Hill and Christ Conley.
Winnipeg got on the board in the top of the fourth inning when newcomer Jacob Rhinesmith doubled off the wall in centre field to score Kevin Lachance.
Rhinesmith, a native of Shakopee, Minnesota, was officially signed earlier Sunday. The 26-year-old outfielder played 25 games earlier this season for the Harrisburg Senators, the Class-AA Eastern League affiliate of the Washington Nationals.
A four-run sixth inning gave the Goldeyes a 5-3 lead. First Murphy hit his league-leading 26th home run of the season off the batter’s eye to lead off the frame. Hidekel Gonzalez then crushed a three-run shot onto the grass berm beyond the left field wall with Lachance and Deon Stafford Jr. aboard. For Gonzalez it was his eighth long ball of the season.
Gomez led off the home half of the inning with a home run just inside the right field foul pole to reduce the Winnipeg lead to one run before Eric Rivera lined a single up the middle in the top of the eighth to drive in Rhinesmith and Stafford to give the Goldeyes a three-run cushion.
Ben Holmes (4-0) earned the victory despite allowing six runs on six hits over three innings. Rodrigo Benoit worked the ninth inning to pick up his sixth save.
Tasker Strobel (2-4), the fifth Winnipeg reliever of the afternoon, took the loss. He gave up the go-ahead home run to Burks in the eighth and was officially charged with two runs on one hit in one-third of an inning.
Explorers 5, Dogs 0 – Boxscore
The Sioux City Explorers (33-40) shut out the Chicago Dogs (46-28) yet again on Sunday.
A stellar pitching performance from Matt Pobereyko was the cornerstone for a victory for the Explorers. He ended up only throwing five innings, but in those five innings he struckout eight and only gave up two hits.
The Explorers came on strong in the second inning with lead off home run from Nate Samson followed by a sacrifice fly from Blake Tiberi to score Ademar Rifaela. Tiberi knocked in a run on another sacrifice fly in the 4th and the Explorers scored two more runs in the 6th on a Shane Podsednik home run.
Railroaders 6, DockHounds 3 – Boxscore
The Railroaders have played six games at Wisconsin Brewing Company Park in 2022 and have won all of them. Cleburne took the series finale from Oconomowoc by a final of 6-3, powered behind timely hitting and a couple of stellar pitching performances.
The first run of the game came in the top of the second off perhaps the hottest hitter in the Cleburne lineup, Hill Alexander. The Lubbock Christian University graduate launched a ball into the Wisconsin afternoon sky and over the center field wall to give the Railroaders a 1-0 advantage over the DockHounds early.
Flash forward to the top of the third, where Cleburne had runners of second and third with Zach Nehrir at the dish. Nehrir looped a single into right-center field that brought both runners around to score to make it 3-0.
Nick Shumpert made it 4-0 in the top of the fourth with a line drive up the middle that scored Chase Simpson.
Lake Country put two on the board in the bottom of that same inning to cut the Railroaders’ lead in half.
Cleburne got one of those runs back in the next half inning off an Alexander RBI double that scored Nehrir after he was hit in the head. A couple of innings later in the seventh, Nehrir drove in his third run on the night via an infield single to DockHounds relief pitcher Greg Veliz. That sixth run for Cleburne gave them a four-run lead heading into the latter third of the game.
The DockHounds scored their third run of the contest in the bottom of the eighth off Austin Fairchild to cut the Cleburne lead in half once again.
Down to their final three outs, the DockHounds need three to at least tie the game. They were tasked with doing so against Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was not interested in keeping the game going any longer than regulation as he shut the DockHounds down in order to complete the series sweep.
Kody Bullard was awarded the victory for the Railroaders. He went five innings, allowing two runs on three hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Angel Ventura got the loss after his six innings of work where he allowed five runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and three walks.
McCarthy got his first save of the season after he completed a scoreless bottom of the ninth.
