Meet the Monarchs: Monarchs win first home series, improve to 6-3 in GLSCL

ADRIAN –– With the heat hanging in the evening air, Tyler Nelson was looking for a changeup.

Down 2-0 to Jet Box Baseball Club, the Michigan Monarchs finally pieced something together in the bottom of the fifth. Starting pitcher Thomas Sylvester had frustrated the Monarchs lineup all evening before finding himself in a bases-loaded jam after giving up back-to-back singles and hitting Joe Kido.

“He threw me the same exact pitch the at-bat before when I lined out to left field,” Nelson said. “He was coming to his changeup a lot (against) me, so I was looking for it.”

Just as Nelson called it, Sylvester threw one for him to turn on and send up the left field line for a double, unloading the bases to give the Monarchs a 3-2 lead.

Jet Box only pressed harder in the next frames. Making his first appearance with the Monarchs, Ryan Zimmer walked the bases loaded with one out and first-year Monarchs manager Ben Komonosky opted for Carson Caudill out of the bullpen.

Just like Nelson, Caudill knew exactly what he wanted when he stepped on the mound.

“My thought process was just, ‘get a ground ball, get a double play so we can get out of it,’” he said.

Caudill threw a first-pitch fastball for a strike to Zac Jones before agreeing on a curveball with catcher Tyler Overaitis. Jones rocketed the curve up to shortstop Jack Fitzharris for a double play to end the inning and preserve a lead the Monarchs would never relinquish.

“That is a massive momentum shifter when you can shut a team down after you take the lead,” Komonosky said. “That right there sets the tone of the game because if those guys scored another run, who knows what’s gonna happen because they have all the momentum back.”

So it was the change and the curve leading to the two key sequences in the Monarchs series-clinching 7-2 win against Jet Box Thursday. With two series wins in the books, the Monarchs (6-3) have carved out a promising start in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League with a fresh roster to boot.

In their second year back at Siena Heights Field full-time, the Monarchs feature 19 players hailing from colleges and universities in Michigan with five players from Indiana schools and three from Ohio and Illinois teams.

Individual players from programs based out of Wisconsin, Nebraska, West Virginia and Arizona round out a roster that’s pieced together from power conference Division I athletes to Division II pitchers in the Midwest to JUCO stalwarts.

But in a young season, some Monarchs have already declared it as a summer ball experience different from ones they’ve had before.

“We met each other like two weeks ago but we all mesh really well,” said second baseman and Central Michigan University player Sandyn Cuthrell. “I don’t think you get that with any summer ball team. It’s more of a competition on other teams, more ‘me, me, me’ for the other team, but we’re all here playing for each other and it’s great.”

No stranger to the rigors of summer leagues, Komonosky, an assistant coach at Frontier Community College in Fairfield, Illinois and former player at Evansville University in Evansville, Indiana, said creating those types of tight-knit bonds was something he had in mind from the start.

“There’s nothing worse than when you’re on a summer team playing every day together but none of the guys are really close,” he said.

Except for maybe losing. With 39 games in 61 days, Komonosky knows it’s important to keep things short and simple after a loss before turning around for a game the next day.

“The thing with summer ball is, you play almost every single day, right?” he said. “So if you dwell on losses, that’s how guys start getting in losing streaks, so I try to flip the switch as fast as possible when we lose the night before.”

So far, the early results of a different, if not unique, approach have been encouraging. At 6-3, the Monarchs are tied with the Lima Locos for first in the North Division of the GLSCL and trail only the 7-2 Cincinnati Steam for the best record in the league.

Pitching has been the Monarchs strength in the early going, with the fifth best ERA (4.30) out of the 13 team GLSCL to boot. The offense has had to work through early slumps, but as batters start to get a greater feel for hitting with wood bats, they promise greater performances at the plate.

“We’re catching balls on a barrel a lot more,” Nelson said of the team’s offensive progression. “We’re barrelling out to a lot of people so those will start to fall. Then our team will just be able to take another jump to the next level.”

With the promise of a young season and a tight-knit group putting it together on the field, several Monarchs made their case for why fans should come out and support the team in their home games at Siena Heights Field.

“We’re fundamentally sound, we hit for power, run basepaths well and pitch the ball well,” third baseman Joe Kido said. “If you want to come out and watch really good baseball, we’re the team to watch right now.”

As for Komonosky? The talent at hand is worth the price of admission.

“This is high level college baseball,” he said. “It’s really talented baseball and I think people should come out and embrace that.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Michigan Monarchs find success in start of new season