Monarchs players, coach reflect on season to remember

ADRIAN – Reece Longstaff shook his head and winced thinking about it.

A tall, lingering popup that seemed to stop at its apex before falling gently into Jayden Davis’ glove at second. Lima’s dugout erupted once it dropped. The Michigan Monarchs didn’t wait to slump.

“It’s tough,” Longstaff said. “It really is. (You) wanna come up big for the team in that situation and just couldn’t get it done today.”

The sting of the moment was hard to shake. At the end of it all, even the 2022 GLSCL North Division Player of the wasn’t immune to making the final out of the season.

“It is what it is,” Longstaff said. “We move on.”

The Monarchs were eliminated from the GLSCL playoffs with a 10-6 loss to the Lima Locos on Thursday night. Falling in an early hole, an offense that surged at midseason worked themselves back into it before the Locos pulled away for their second GLSCL Championship appearance in as many years.

This was not how it was supposed to go for the team with the best regular season in the GLSCL at 23-15, and won their first playoff game in more than a decade with five All-Stars and the North Division Coach of the Year at the helm.

And yet, there was some comfort after the loss. After all, the Monarchs more than have a base to build on after this particular group.

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, this was Longstaff’s first year in the United States and first summer league experience. He thrived in a largely unfamiliar environment with a .325 batting average, 14 RBIs and three home runs on his way to the aforementioned division player of the year honors.

It’s clear he won’t remember the popup in the long run.

“I said it to the boys before in the huddle that I wouldn’t wanna do it with anyone else,” he said. “I love each and every one of these guys. It was a super fun year, man. To be able to achieve what we achieved, it’s awesome.”

Longstaff said he will return to Arizona Western College in Yuma, Arizona before looking to transfer to a four-year school or test the waters of professional baseball. The success of his summer away from home will stick with him along the way.

“Wherever baseball takes me, I’m willing to go,” he said.

Just as it brought Longstaff to Adrian, it took Sandyn Cuthrell to the same place. The incoming sophomore at Central Michigan University and Cass City native walked twice, scored once and made multiple strong plays at second base in the face of elimination.

Like Longstaff, this was Cuthrell’s first summer ball experience – one that “amazed” him with how different it was from what he expected.

“Summer ball is usually built off very self-centered baseball,” he said. “They’re just there to get their reps and play ball. That’s what summer ball is, really.

“It doesn’t happen a lot where you get a group of guys like this together and make (this) happen.”

While discussing the bonds made this summer, Cuthrell sighed when bringing up the conditions that molded them.

“I think that adversity (added) to the chemistry our team had,” he said. “It’s a different feeling when you’re at rock bottom but when you’re at rock bottom with all your guys, you just mesh 10 times better.”

The hardships in question? It was plain to see for anybody traveling with the team.

“It’s no secret, we go to other places and we play other teams and (the team) can see they got nicer setups than we do,” said Monarchs head coach Ben Komonosky. “We were facing a lot of adversity all year, a lot of stuff behind the scenes. But these guys didn’t really care about that.”

Joe Kido was one of those players unfazed by anything going on outside the diamond. A rock-solid contact hitter and feared baserunner, the Indiana State product and Merrillville, Indiana native compiled a .296 batting average while embodying the head-down, keep-working mentality his head coach helped curate.

Komonosky – “Coach K” as he’s known to his team – is 24. Only a year removed from his playing days at the University of Evansville, he still sees the game as a player and was able to draw on his unique perspective to guide a long-struggling franchise to one of their best seasons ever.

“I really appreciate him keeping it as serious as summer ball can be while also being as relaxed as summer ball can be,” said infielder Henry Brown.

All while making a greater impact on a group cobbled together from a range of different schools with different experiences.

“He meant everything to us,” Kido said. “Best-fitting coach for us. Him being around our age really helped him know what we were thinking as well.

“We didn’t have to think of him just as a coach, we could think of him as a friend as well.”

For his part, Komonosky said the special environment established this summer from Siena Heights Field to bonfires after games was more a credit to his players than him – North Division Coach of the Year honors or not. A “no-brainer” opportunity for him blossomed into something

But even after flying in the face of the any stigma surrounding summer leagues all summer, Komonosky knows the final outcome as well as anybody.

“Summer ball is a weird thing, man,” he said. “You spend every single day with this group of guys that you’ve never met before in your life. Spend every single day doing everything together, they become some of the best friends that you’ve ever met. Summer ends and you never see them ever again.”

As Komonosky spoke, players filed out slowly but not softly. Some carried piles of dirty uniforms. Others took their time changing out of their game pants. All joked and laughed with each other.

One wore a plastic gold crown with red felt lining, the gold glinting as the lights on the Monarchs season burned out for the last time.

It’s the first step in an inevitable goodbye, with junior college players due to their respective schools in the coming weeks and Division I players following shortly after. All told, the 2022 North Division regular season champs will go their separate ways to schools across the country.

In other words: back to reality.

“I’m probably not gonna see most of these guys ever again,” Komonosky said. “It’s sad in that regard.”

Anything else?

Komonosky shook his head and cracked a thin smile. The memories will have to do.

“Go ‘Narchs,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Monarchs players, coach reflect on season to remember