Whatever works: Monarchs rally for long-awaited playoff win
ADRIAN – Thirty-five minutes before first pitch, left fielder Reece Longstaff cracked the press box door open and made sure his walkup song was the right one.
Not Down Under by Men At Work – that was for his first, and only, pitching appearance of the season on Saturday.
No, Longstaff needed the old one, a slow-burning Australian house rhythm titled Along Came Polly by Rebuke, the type to send skipping bass and clanging drums echoing into the pastures behind Siena Heights Field.
“That’s part of my approach now and my pre-at-bat routine,” the Melbourne native said. “It sort of locks me in to the at-bat.”
Even if it’s not getting played on team bus rides anytime soon.
“They hate it,” Longstaff said. “But it’s not them who needs to like it, it’s me. So, it’s all good.”
Starter Brendan Moran discreetly shuffled over to the third base side of the mound before pitching each of his 4 2/3 innings and scrawled a simple, curt message in the dirt: “RIP CONNOR,” a nod to his late brother.
From there, a brief glance down did the trick.
“It’s definitely something that I use to kind of help lock myself in before the inning,” Moran said. “A second to gather myself and just take a moment.”
Michigan Monarchs head coach Ben Komonosky doesn’t consider himself a superstitious person, but he does have an energy drink before each game. The flavor only changes when they lose.
“When we went on that (six-game) winning streak, I was having the (Monster Energy) orange flavor for like six days in a row and I was getting really sick of it,” he said. “But we were winning ballgames. I can take that.”
The flavor of the first playoff win since the Monarchs returned to Adrian?
“Watermelon,” Komonosky said.
Walkup songs, tributes carved in the ground, watermelon energy drinks, they’re only connected in the most tangential sense. But for the GLSCL North Division Player of the Year, a reliever turned postseason starter and a first-time head coach, it doesn’t matter at this point – whatever works.
So if it wasn’t the theme of the Michigan Monarchs regular season, it’s become the tone of the postseason with a 4-2 comeback win against the Lima Locos in Game 1 of the North Division semifinals. Tuesday night might not have been a perfect one for the Monarchs by anybody’s standards, including their own.
But, it worked out. Now three wins away from a title, that’s all they could’ve hoped for.
“We’re pretty happy with what happened,” Komonosky said.
For his part, Moran didn’t have visions of grandeur heading into his first start in the GLSCL playoffs.
“I was just thinking, come out and locate everything,” he said. “Not really trying to do much necessarily. Just have an average game.”
Moran pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up two runs, three hits and three walks while striking out one batter. Spurts of pinpoint location and a long, sweeping slider keeping opposing batters in check made it his longest start of the season by 2/3 of an innings after being bumped into the starting rotation at midseason.
Average or not, Moran’s outing fit as well as possible into the calculus of the Monarchs game plan.
“That’s what we wanted out of him to start this series. That’s what he’s capable of giving us,” Komonosky said.
Pitching directly in relief of Moran for the second time this season, Ricky Kidd was the ultimate changeup. High velocity. Wicked movement. Locos got jammed on the inside, lost chasing on the outside through Kidd’s 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball with seven (five in a row through the seventh and eighth innings) strikeouts to boot.
Moran’s nearly two-and-a-half years Kidd’s senior. He’s seen more baseball and embodies the value of hitting his spots over raw power, so it’s not surprising he speaks about his staff with an understated, practical confidence.
“We’re really deep,” he said. “Any of our pitchers could start one day or come out of the pen and be equally effective and be able to go how many we need them to. That’s definitely something that will benefit us down the stretch where other teams might be running out of arms and have guys going on short rest that aren’t necessarily used to it.”
Kidd seemed to simmer at the surface when echoing Moran’s sentiments about the true strength of the team being put to the test. He put his own spin on the feeling of holding up.
“Nothing gets better than playoff baseball and just coming out there, and you know, shoving,” Kidd said.
‘That’s a big boy at-bat’
Komonosky knew his team had struggled with runners in scoring position the last couple of weeks. Down 2-1 with seven stranded baserunners in their wake, he didn’t find much of a reason to worry.
“That’s what we’ve done all year,” he said. “We find ways to manufacture runs late in volume so I wasn’t stressing too much.
“Sooner or later, we were gonna get something to fall.”
One fell in the sixth. Sandyn Cuthrell snuck a single in between Henry Brown’s groundout to third and Ian Francis’ strikeout. Locos starter Miller Riggins subsequently hit Longstaff. Joe Kido beat out a throw from third for his second hit of the game.
The bases were loaded with two outs for the second inning in a row. Up next, Tyler Nelson, another Monarch looking to make good on a great chance despite admitting he wasn’t having a great day at the plate.
Nelson started off with a 1-1 count before Riggins slipped a borderline pitch past him for a strike. Digging in, he worked his way up to a full count as every player in the dugout gradually hunched forward.
At this point, he was looking for the backfoot slider Riggins had thrown him two times previously – one he knew he could at the least foul off or leave outside the zone.
“I was prepared,” he said. “I wanted the moment.”
In the moment, Nelson kept his bat on his shoulder. Riggins nearly doubled over the second it hit catcher Brayden White’s mitt. The Monarchs dugout roared in approval as Cuthrell, representing the tying run, crossed over home plate.
And Nelson took his walk and went to first.
“Pretty easy take,” he said.
Seth Gergely followed up with a 2-run bloop single to shallow right field for a 4-2 lead the Monarchs wouldn’t surrender. Meeting his head coach at third after, Nelson got his marks.
“I just looked at him and laughed,” Komonosky said. “I was like, ‘that’s a big boy at-bat.’
Few envision themselves breaking a game open by laying off a backfoot slider. Even fewer plan to do their best work with their backs snug against the wall.
There’s something to be said about it, though, and the potential of an offense finding success in a high-pressure situation. Let Nelson speak to the feeling provided by those it’s possibilities:
“(It’s) limitless,” he said.
‘Compete, compete, compete’
History doesn’t burden this Monarchs team. There’s no way it ever could. There’s almost always a brand-new team, coaching staff and, occasionally, ballpark each season. Erasing a 23-year GLSCL title drought remains the task at hand, but it’s unlikely any Monarch is losing sleep in the dorms over the time spent without a championship.
Keeping the balance that got them there – caring enough to compete hard but not competing to the point of playing tight either – might pose a challenge. Komonosky understands this.
“I just told them, it’s no different now,” he said. “Games are a little higher-stakes, but I still want (them) to have fun, play loose and compete, compete, compete.”
Komonosky’s words hung in the air. The formula hasn’t changed. Neither have the intentions at play heading into the next, depending on which Monarch is speaking.
“Take the series and head off to the championship,” Longstaff said.
“Just play almost the same way we did today,” Moran said.
“Go out there and kick Lima again,” Kidd said.
Whatever works, works.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Whatever works: Monarchs rally for long-awaited playoff win
