By Carter Woodiel, Kansas City Monarchs

FARGO, N.D. — The American Association’s West Division might just run through the Kansas City Monarchs.

Kansas City withstood a late comeback to knock off the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 5-3 on Friday at Newman Outdoor Field. The win extends their division lead over the RedHawks to a season-high eight games.

Brandon Finnegan threw six strong innings to earn the win for Kansas City.

“For me, my thought process is I just need to go out there and just pound the zone with everything I got,” Finnegan said after the game. “The defense played great tonight. Maris made a lot of great plays behind me at third. I got a lot of weak contact.”

Gavin Collins, who earlier in the day won a fan vote for a spot in the league All-Star Game, homered in the victory.

“I’m so pumped that he made it; he should have been an All-Star to begin with, along with a lot of other guys in this locker room,” Finnegan said.

The Monarchs are now guaranteed to leave Fargo with the division lead. They’ll look to further extend their advantage Saturday night at 6 p.m. in game two of the three-game set.

“We have such a good team, and so many of these guys do not belong here [at this level],” Finnegan said. “We’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Monarchs right fielder Brian O’Grady drove in the game’s first run in the first inning with a sacrifice fly to score Odubel Herrera.

Correlle Prime tied the score for Fargo-Moorhead with a solo homer in the bottom of the first, his 10th blast of the season.

The Monarchs retook the lead in the second. LJ Hatch started the rally with a one-out triple. Herrera drove him in with an RBI single to make it 2-1.

Herrera went on to score on a Chris Herrmann sacrifice fly. It was the 50th RBI of the season for the Monarchs catcher, tied with Cleburne’s Zach Nehrir for the most in the league.

The Monarchs took a 4-1 lead on a Jacob Robson sac fly in the third inning.

RedHawks starter Kevin McGovern threw six innings, allowing four runs on four hits. He walked five and hit a batter, striking out three.

Finnegan settled in after the Prime homer in the first. He allowed six hits without walking a batter, striking out five. He threw 99 pitches.

The Monarchs took a 5-1 lead after Collins’ home run in the eighth inning.

The RedHawks plated two runs off Jordan Martinson in the eighth inning, but Kansas City closer Patrick Weigel worked a scoreless ninth to ice the 5-3 victory.

UP NEXT

Kansas City native Dalton Moats will start Saturday’s game for the Monarchs agaisnt Fargo-Moorhead’s Jake Dykhoff. Monarchs fans can tune in at MonarchsBaseball.com/Live starting at 5:50 p.m.