HUTCHINSON, Kan. - The Hutchinson Monarchs put together timely hitting in the first two innings of their Friday night home stand game versus the Kingman Islanders to take a 2-0 lead and then got superb pitching from both their starter Cole Toureau and three strong innings of relief from Jack Mount to edge the Islanders for a 2-1 victory.
In doing so, the Monarchs clinched a tie for the Jayhawk Summer League second half Championship. 30 minutes later they celebrated winning the league outright when they found out the Wichita Dirtbags had defeated the Kansas Cannons 3-2.
Will Edmundson tripled with one out in the bottom of the first and then was sacrificed home by Blake Bradford to give Hutch the early 1-0 lead.
Mac Bowie then earned his first hit and RBI as a Monarch to score Zurich Warren in the second inning for the Monarchs second run to lead 2-0. Bowie also advanced to third on a successful hit-and-run by Brett Smajstrla but was stranded at third as Cooper Wesslund ground out to third for the final out of the inning.
But that was all the offense that the Monarchs needed as Toureau was extremely sharp stricking out seven Islanders over the course of the six inning he pitched only giving up one run and two hits in his outing to earn the win. Jack Mount slammed the door shut on Kingman with three perfect innings of relief including stricking out the side in the seventh inning and getting five strikeouts over his three innings of relief.
Kingman's Mason Munz was just as impressive in giving up only four hits in his seven innings pitched but the Bowie RBI in the second inning was enough for Hutch to get the win.
The next and final regular season game of the 2024 will be Saturday night versus Kingman again with first pitch at 7pm.
It was announced that the Monarchs will begin the task of defending their 2023 NBC World Series Championship on Thursday, July 25th at 6pm vs an opponent to be announced later at Eck Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University to open the 90th annual NBC World Series for 2024.