St. Joseph Mustangs baseball team loses season opening game to the KC Monarchs

(ST. JOSEPH, MO) - The St. Joseph Mustangs baseball team began its 2026 season on Wednesday. One small step in the search of the team's record breaking 11th MINK League Championship title.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, they started the season with a 10-5 defeat at Phil Welch Stadium to the KC Monarchs.

Former Mustang Steve D'Amico got the start on the mound for the Monarchs, in 7 innings pitched he struck out 7 batters while giving up 8 hits and 5 runs.

The Mustangs were down 6-0 heading into the bottom of the 3rd, when Carter Belton had a solo home run to give St. Joseph its first run of the season to make it 6-1.

Then in the bottom of the 4th, Lafayette High School alum Jayden Little ran out an RBI triple to pull within 6-2.

Isaiah Ketller added a 2 RBI triple in the bottom of the 7th and Eden Meyers had an RBI single in the 8th but it wasn't enough in the defeat.

Little and Meyers both finished 1-for-4 at the plate with 1 RBI. Belton finished 2-for-4 with 1 RBI with the solo home run.

"A lot of guys on this team are new here to St. Joseph and playing for the Mustangs and seeing a huge crowd like that, over 3,000 people, a lot of guys were nervous," said Mustangs Manager Johnny Coy. "Those nerves showed on the mound. We dug ourselves too big of a hole to get out of it. Still early in the season, we're not worried too much about it. We just have to continue to get better every day."

Mustangs have an off day on Thursday, May 28th before being back at home on Friday, May 29th against the Carroll Merchants at 7 pm.