By GMW VAUGHAN
Kansas City Monarchs
LINCOLN, Neb.— The Kansas City Monarchs (54-31) defeated the Lincoln Saltdogs (39-47) Saturday night at Haymarket Park.
Matt Hall, starting pitcher for the Monarchs, struck out a season-high 12 batters, notching the win against the Saltdogs, 3-2. The victory clinches an American Association playoff spot for Kansas City for the fourth straight season.
The Monarchs batters took a while to get grooving in Lincoln. Pete Kozma got the momentum going in the top of the third inning with a double to left field. A base hit from Ryan Grotjohn allowed the Monarchs to get on the board first, 1-0.
Monarchs’ bats remained quiet until Ryan Grotjohn’s base hit started the sixth inning. Jacob Robson and Casey Gillaspie followed with walks, loading the bases, and the Monarchs were in business. Another walk by Gio Brusa brought in Ryan Grotjohn, bringing the lead to 2-0. The walks resulted in a pitching change for the Saldogs as Jonathan Cheshire came in for John Bezdicek. Olmeda followed the pitching change with a single, scoring Robson and ending the inning with some insurance and a KC lead, 3-0.
Matt Hall ended his quality start with 12 punch-outs, a season high for him as Brian Glowicki came in in the top of the seventh inning for relief. The first batter, Luke Roskam, hit a home run, followed by an error that advanced Randy Norris, but Glowicki and the Monarchs defense held off the Saltdog advance, ending the inning with a 3-1 lead.
In the home half of the eighth inning, Ryan Long started the Saltdog offense off with a walk from Glowicki, followed by a single by Jason Rogers, then a sacrifice fly from Hunter Clanin scored Ryan Long, narrowing the 3-2 Monarchs lead.
Brandon Koch came in for the Monarchs save, and he worked a 1-2-3 inning, ending the game with a 3-2 victory and a spot in the 2022 playoffs American Association playoffs. The winning pitcher was Matt Hall (8-2), the losing pitcher John Bezdicek (0-3). The Monarchs trail the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks by 3.5 games for the top seed in the post season with 15 games left to play including four head to head over Labor Day weekend.
The Monarchs will look to sweep the three-game weekend series Sunday against the Lincoln Saltdogs at 1:05 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 12:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aa baseball.tv.