By Adam Bertsch

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Tyler Herron and the Sioux Falls Canaries bullpen kept the St. Paul Saints in check for a 6-3 victory on Wednesday evening.

The Canaries(11-5) jumped on the board first in the opening inning on an RBI single by Alay Lago scoring Andrew Ely to give the home team the 1-0 advantage.

Sioux Falls added one more in the bottom of the second inning when Mike Hart used his speed and heads up base running to score from second on a back pick play gone wrong. Saints first baseman John Silviano sent the ball into shallow left field after trying to get Ryan Long caught between first and second. Mike Hart read the play and just kept running all the way home to give the Birds the 2-0 lead.

The Saints(7-10) got on the board in the top of the third on a Chris Chinea RBI double to score Alonzo Harris from first to cut the Sioux Falls lead in half 2-1.

The Birds sent their first and only long ball out of the park in the bottom of the third. It was a two-run shot off the bat of Clint Coulter to extend the advantage to 4-1 Birds.

One more run came into score in the bottom of the fifth for Sioux Falls once again off the bat of Clint Coulter but this time it was by way of the sacrifice fly to drive in Alay Lago and make the score 5-1 Canaries.

St. Paul chipped away in each of the next two innings with one run in the top of the sixth and one run the top of the seventh making the Saints deficit 5-3.

Damek Tomscha helped the Birds add an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on his RBI single to extend the lead to 6-3.

That is how the game would end giving the Canaries their 11th win of the season. With the win the Birds maintain sole possession of first place in the American Association standings.

Tyler Herron went six and a third innings in his best start of the year allowing three runs on six hits with five walks and striking out four. Ryan Fritze, DJ Sharabi, and Keaton Steele combined to allow no runs the rest of the game and finish the job. Steele picked up his league leading seventh save of the season as well.

UP NEXT

The Sioux Falls Canaries go for the sweep against the St. Paul Saints Thursday July 23. Grady Wood will take the ball for the Birds. Mike Devine will get the start for the Saints. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Birds fans can find information on how to watch and listen at SFCanaries.com.

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