KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Sioux Falls Canaries secured a much-needed bounce-back win in Kansas City on Tuesday night.

Sioux Falls (31-37), coming off being swept at home by Lincoln, held off a the T-Bones (33-33) 8-6 in a game the Birds led the whole way.

The Canaries jumped on T-Bones starter Jose Mesa Jr. in the first inning. Brett Vertigan doubled to lead off the game, and two batters later Kevin Taylor drove him in with an RBI single.

Sioux Falls added three more in the second inning, all on one swing. Burt Reynolds hit a first-pitch bases-clearing double to make it 4-0 Birds.

The Birds made it 5-0 in the third when Alay Lago knocked a leadoff double and scored on a Clint Coulter sacrifice fly two batter later.

Kansas City didn’t go quietly, though. Tyler Marincov hit his first homer as a T-Bone in the fourth inning, a three-run shot off Canaries starter Alex Boshers to cut the deficit to two.

Sioux Falls added two runs in the top of the fifth on back-to-back RBI doubles from Andrew Ely and Clint Coulter.

A Casey Gillaspie grounder pushed across a T-Bones run in the bottom of the inning, making it 7-4 Birds.

Canaries starter Alex Boshers threw five solid innings to earn the win. He allowed four runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out two.

Luis Pollorena tossed the sixth and seventh innings for Sioux Falls, throwing two key scoreless innings to bridge the gap.

Will Solomon came on to pitch the eighth inning, and ran into some trouble. Kansas City loaded the bases with two out, prompting Canaries manager Mike Meyer to go to Sam Bragg for the four-out save. Bragg allowed a two-run double from Dylan Tice to cut the Birds’ lead to one, but struck out Jordan George to leave the mound up 7-6.

The Birds plated a key insurance run in the top of the ninth, and Bragg worked a scoreless inning to seal the win.

UP NEXT

The Canaries and T-Bones meet for game two of their three-game series Wednesday night at 7:05pm. Ryan Froom will pitch for Sioux Falls; Tommy Collier will take the ball for Kansas City. Birds fans can tune in on Sioux Falls Sports Radio 98.1 FM and AM 1230 KWSN and kwsn.com.