By GABRIEL LOPEZ
Kansas City Monarchs
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City Monarchs (2-3) had a quiet night at the plate as they dropped the second game of the series against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (3-2) by a score of 2-1 Wednesday night.
A pitching duel between Nick Beltzer (0-1) and Kevin McGovern (1-0) kept the game scoreless through the first three innings. The RedHawks broke the tie in the fourth inning when Drew Ward roped a double down the right field line to score Manuel Boscan from second base. Leobaldo Pina immediately followed this up with a double of his own down the left field line to bring in Ward, making the score 2-0.
The Monarchs offense was held at bay until the sixth inning when Darnell Sweeney hit a solo home run over the “home run patio” in left field, cutting the lead in half. Sweeney’s long ball marked back-to-back nights with a home run for the veteran.
Kevin McGovern had an excellent start for the RedHawks. The former Winnipeg Goldeyes’ starter and the all time American Association strikeout leader finished his night allowing one run and three hits, fanning 11 Monarchs through seven innings pitched.
In the eighth inning, the Monarchs offense started to show some life. David Thompson reached on an error made by shortstop Sam Dexter. Casey Gillaspie followed by walking on four straight balls. Darnell Sweeney singled on a hard ground ball off the pitcher loading the bases. However, the Monarchs weren’t able to cash in any runs.
Game three against Fargo-Moorhead is Thursday at 7 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.