The Sioux Falls Canaries offense once again struggled to find any sort of rhythm on Sunday afternoon, dropping the final game of the weekend homestand to the St. Paul Saints by the final score of 5-0 at Sioux Falls Stadium.

Canaries starting pitcher Joe Bircher struggled out of the gate in his 5th start of the season. The south-paw gave a two-out RBI single to Angelo Songco, and followed that up with a two-run homerun for Tony Thomas to make it 3-0 in the top of the 1st inning.

Bircher (0-3, 2.61 ERA) settled down after the rocky start to his afternoon, holding the dangerous Saints offense scorless for the next five innings, before giving up a lead-off walk in the top of the 7th. RHP Jimmer Kennedy replaced Bircher in the 7th, and recorded the first two outs on a pair of foul ball pop-ups, but gave up the final run of the night on a two-out RBI single from Saints third baseman, Nate Hanson.

Saints Starting pitcher Kody Knaus picked up his first win of the season after holding the Canaries offense scoreless over 5 2/3 innings of work. The left-hander gave up five hits on the day, but only allowed one Canaries batter to reach third base all afternoon.

Saints relief pitcher, Caleb Thielbar struck out two batters while allowing one hit over 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

Blake Schmit extended his hitting streak to eight games after reaching base with a lead-off single in the bottom of the first inning. Schmit has now hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games, and leads the team with his .341 batting average.

Ozney Guillen also extended his hitting streak to five games after going 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in the loss. Guillen went 7-for-21 in the four game series against St. Paul, raising his batting average 35 points over the weekend.

The loss on Sunday afternoon was the sixth straight for the Canaries, who have posted a 4-15 record since opening up the season with five straight wins.

The Canaries have an off-day on Monday, but return to the Birdcage on Tuesday night when they open up a three-game series against the Gary Southshore Railcats. Buy 2 tickets to any of the Tuesday night games at The Birdcage this season, and get a second pair FREE! Contact the Canaries ticket office for information regarding single game or season ticket options by calling 605-336-6060 or visit the website at www.sfcanaries.com for more information.

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