By Scott Roblin

Monarchs outlast Elks to win Lethbridge tournament opener

Jun 16, 2018 | 10:59 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Medicine Hat ‘AA’ Moose Monarchs had to battle Mother Nature on Friday afternoon, but started off the Mary Oikawa Memoriak Tournament on the right foot.

Medicine Hat earned an 11-8 victory over the host Lethbridge Elks to open the tournament with a win, their fifth of the season.

Scoreless in the second inning, Ethan Loran singled on a ground ball to left field to score Zach Stark to put Medicine Hat in the lead.

Starter Tyran George ran into some issues in the second inning however, giving up three runs on a pair of Lethbridge singles to give the Elks a 3-1 advantage.

The Monarchs knotted up the game at 3-3 in the third inning following a Jack Suhai RBI and took the lead again with a two-run single courtesy of Theryn Berndt.

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Lethbridge continued their tenacious play in the bottom half of the third though, netting a pair more runs to make it a 5-5 game heading to the fourth.

Both teams needed to be patient however, as a thunderstorm through the Lethbridge area caused a lengthy rain delay before action got back underway.

Coming alive in the fifth inning, Medicine Hat cashed in three runs off an RBI from Loran and an error off the Elks catcher to take the lead for good.

After a wild pitch brought in Tory Nelson in the seventh, Suhai singled to bring Braydon Pudwell and Ethan Boutkan around the bases to stretch the Monarchs lead to 11-5.

Lethbridge made things interesting with three runs over the final two innings, but Boutkan got the Elks to fly-out to end the game with an 11-8 win for Medicine Hat.

It was a game to remember for Suhai, earning the win on the mound with just three hits and three earned runs given up over four and one-third innings, while also going 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs.

Loran also had a strong contest for Medicine Hat, bringing three runs around the bases in the win.

Moving to 5-9 on the season and 1-0 in tournament play, the Monarchs have two games lined up on Saturday against the Calgary Junior Dinos and the East Central Bulls.