Las Vegas pounces on Zephyrs early

Johnny Monell homered and drove in four runs, powering the Las Vegas 51s to a 10-6 victory over the New Orleans Zephyrs on Wednesday night.

Las Vegas claimed three of four games in the series to maintain its three-game cushion over El Paso in the Pacific Southern Division. The Zephyrs lost for the 17th time in their last 18 games and fell to 3-23 in the month of August, the most losses in a single month in club history.

The Z's also suffered their 80th defeat, only the fourth time reaching that mark in 23 seasons in New Orleans.

The 51s scored three runs in both the first and second innings against Zephyrs starter Rob Morey to grab a commanding lead. Kevin Plawecki started the scoring with an RBI single to right, and Brandon Allen followed with a two-run triple into the right field corner.

Isaac Galloway drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning, stole second and scored on a single by Vinny Rottino, but Las Vegas responded with three more runs in the second. Darrell Ceciliani roped a run-scoring double to left-center, and Monell delivered a two-run single.

Galloway doubled off the wall in center field to cash in a one-out single by Austin Wates, but Monell stretched the Las Vegas lead to 8-2 in the fourth with his seventh home run of the year.

51s starter Darin Gorski (10-8) scattered three runs and 10 hits across five innings, but stranded nine runners on base to maintain a comfortable lead and put himself in line for the victory.

New Orleans out-hit Las Vegas 16-14, led by a 4-for-5 effort from Kila Ka'aihue, who had collected only five hits in his previous 65 at-bats. Five other Zephyrs chipped in two hits each, including Reid Brignac, who upped his hitting streak to 19 games, one shy of the longest in the Pacific Coast League this season. Brignac is batting .410 during the streak.

Morey (2-7) lost his fifth consecutive start after allowing eight runs and nine hits in four innings. After entering August with a 2.95 ERA, Morey has posted a 8.10 ERA for the month.

The Zephyrs welcome the Salt Lake Bees for the final home series of the season on Thursday at 7 p.m.