WICHITA, KS — Royals’ outfielder Mark Canha, joined the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (18-19, 51-55) on a rehab assignment Friday and hit a grand slam that kick-started the offense in a 9-5 win over the Wichita Wind Surge (19-18, 56-50) at Equity Bank Park in Wichita, Kansas. The two teams continue their series Saturday with a 6:05 PM CT first pitch.
Javier Vaz singled in the second inning and stole second base before Dustin Dickerson and Kyle Hayes each worked two-out walks. Carson Roccaforte joined in with a free-pass, forcing home the first Naturals run to tie the game after the Surge got a homer in the first inning. With the bases loaded, Canha hit a 389-foot grand slam over the left-field wall to give NWA a 5-1 lead.
The Wind Surge plated a pair on Ben Ross’ homer in the fourth and the game stayed 5-3 until the sixth when Roccaforte doubled home Hayes with two outs to make it 6-3 lead. Brett Squires came to the plate in the seventh with one out and homered to dead center to give the Nats a 7-3 cushion, and Sam Ruta homered to center later in the frame, a two-run shot to extend the lead to 9-3. Kaelen Culpepper hit a two-run homer in the seventh for Surge, but the Naturals went on to win 9-5 to tie the series ahead of the weekend at two games apiece…