June 20th: Monarchs Win Wild Walk-Off

The Monarchs and Aces faced off in what was undoubtedly the wildest game of the senior league season thus far. The Aces took a one to nothing lead on a Greg Whelan single, but that was just the beginning of the craziness. The Aces added four more runs in the second inning, with an RBI single from Greg Whelan again, a Brian Bennett RBI double, and a 2 RBI single from Steven Hynes. 

The Monarchs would score one run in the bottom of the second on an Andrew Gillard RBI knock, but it would still look like an uphill battle for them as the night wore on. The Aces tacked on a sixth run in the third, but in the bottom half of the frame the Monarchs made a ballgame out of it, thanks to a double steal, an Aaron Mercer RBI double, and an Al Bailey RBI groundout that would make it 6-4 for the Aces.

The Aces would come right back though, and score four runs in the fourth inning to make it 10-4. From then on, it was time for the Monarchs to start crawling back. They scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth from an Aaron Mercer RBI single, and then three more on RBI singles from Noah Park, Andrew Gillard, and Markus Wells to make it a one run ballgame. Al Bailey would tie the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, but the Aces would pull ahead in the top of the seventh thanks to a Greg Whelan RBI single to make it 11-10 (Whelan knocked in 3, on 3 separate RBI singles on the night).

Down one run in the bottom of the seventh, the Monarchs looked as though their big comeback might be all for naught. With one out in the inning, Markus Wells would score the tying run on an error, and Nick Park would score the winning run on another error as the Monarchs claimed the first walk off win of the season.