The Cardinals prospect drove in five runs in a 12-run first inning and finished with two homers and a career-high six RBIs on Wednesday as the Class A Quad Cities River Bandits pounded the Beloit Snappers, 20-3.

Batting with the bases loaded in the opening frame, Garcia doubled to center field to stake the River Bandits to a 4-0 lead. With two outs, he launched a two-run homer to cap the 12-run outburst.

"He got a pitch that was a little bit up in the zone and hit in the gap," Quad Cities hitting coach Joe Kruzel said of Garcia's first at-bat. "He put a good swing on it and hit it hard. Once [the second one] left his bat, you knew it was gone."

An 18th-round pick in 2009 Draft, Garcia added a solo shot in the fourth, eclipsing the career high he set last Aug. 10, when he homered twice and drove in five runs for Rookie-level Johnson City.

"Anthony is a strong young man and the second homer was hit dead left into the wind," Kruzel said. "If he gets a ball out over the middle of the plate and up, he's got a chance to hit it hard and do some damage. What was good about Anthony tonight was that he stayed in the strike zone."

In his first full Minor League season, Garcia is batting .290 with four homers and 29 RBIs in 41 games. After a sluggish April in which the 20-year-old outfielder hit .240, he's turned it around in May with a .343 average and 1.017 OPS.

"I give him credit, he worked hard," Kruzel said. "He got got off to a rough start; this was the first time he played in cold weather. "Once he made a couple of adjustments, you could see the way the ball came off his bat. He's worked more on being down and through the baseball. Early on, he was getting beat and was under the ball.

"This is his first full season. He just has to learn to show up to the ballpark and put your work in. You don't want to just show up to the ballpark, this game will humble you in a heartbeat."

Quad Cities went on to score 20 runs for the second time this season, having drubbed Peoria, 20-5, on May 5.

"It's one of those nights. Yesterday, we had four or five hits and won, 3-1," Kruzel noted. "These nights don't happen very often. It's just one of those days where it seems like everything we hit got the barrel on the ball and found holes. I don't think I've ever seen the first 10 hitters of the game reach base. We were fortunate."

Virgil Hill went 3-for-5 with four runs scored, Nick Martini slugged a three-run homer and Tyler Rahmatulla reached base four times and scored three runs for the River Bandits.

Sam Gaviglio improved to 3-3 after allowing two runs on four hits over seven innings.