by Gabriel Lopez, Kansas City Monarchs

Kansas City, Kan. — The Kansas City Monarchs (42-22) pummeled the Sioux Falls Canaries (24-38) Wednesday night at Legends Field. The Monarchs beat the Canaries in a commanding 16-2 victory.

The Monarchs offense exploded early. Matt Adams led off the inning with a double over left fielder Angelo Altavilla. Casey Gillaspie followed up the at-bat with a single to right field, but an error made by right fielder Aaron Takacs allowed Adams to score and advance Gillaspie to third. A sacrifice fly from J.C. Escarra scored Gillaspie and gave Kansas City an early 2-0 lead over the Canaries.

Pete Kozma kept the offense going as he roped a double off the left field wall. Alexis Olmeda brought him in with an RBI-single up the middle. After Darnell Sweeney worked a walk, Chad De La Guerra hit a three-run bomb to right-center field. The Monarchs went on to score three more runs and finished the inning with eight hits and a 9-0 lead over the Canaries.

Sioux Falls scraped across a run in both the third and fourth innings on RBI’s from Gavin LaValley and Jabari Henry to make it 2-9.

The Monarchs onslaught continued in the bottom of the fourth. Kozma drove in Gillaspie with a sacrifice fly to left field. RBI’s from Willie Abreu, Darnell Sweeney, and David Thompson gave Kansas City a 13-2 lead after four innings of play.

The Monarchs continued to steamroll the Canaries. In the bottom of the fifth, Kozma notched an RBI-single to score Gillaspie. Two innings later, Escarra doubled and was quickly brought home on an RBI-single from Abreu. Kansas City tacked on another run in the eighth as Adams drove in Sweeney with a single to left field. After eight innings of play, the Monarchs led 16-2.

Brian Glowicki made his season debut for the Monarchs in the ninth inning. He made quick work of the Canaries, striking out two and retiring the side to end the game.

The Monarchs will look to sweep the Sioux Falls Canaries tomorrow night (6/28) at 7:00 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.

Tickets to all Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com. For additional information or interview requests, members of the media may contact the Monarchs Media Relations Department at (817) 739-3693. Stay tuned to monarchsbaseball.com. and the Monarchs Facebook and Twitter pages for updates throughout the season.

WP: Gilliam (4-1)
LP: Garkow (1-6)
S: N/A

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