When two light towers in left and left-center field at Modern Woodmen Park went suddenly black, play was suspended for 20 minutes between the Quad-Cities River Bandits and Burlington on Wednesday.

The Bandits might have wished the power outage had come sooner and, just maybe, lasted longer. By the top of the sixth, when the towers went dark, Burlington had already seized command of the contest, leading 11-4 en route to a 12-5 Bees victory.

Burlington had already demonstrated the ability to put on a power surge of its own, erasing a 4-2 Q-C lead with a six-run third inning that chased Bandits starter Gary Daley from the game and left reliever Adam Veres barely hanging on when the inning ended.

Daley gave up two walks and an RBI single to Burlington All-Star Nick VanStratten to open the inning, and then looked like he'd briefly righted the ship after getting Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Eric Hosmer and Nick Francis to strike out looking.

But Burlington's Jason Taylor drove the ball deep to left-center, scoring two runs. At that point, River Bandits manager Steve Dillard brought in Veres to stem the tide, but Veres wound up giving up five straight singles and two more runs.

Veres' only out came when left fielder Travis Mitchell cut down a runner at the plate.

"He (Daley) just didn't have the command. Sometimes he didn't miss by much, but he still missed," Dillard said. "He just has trouble finding his command. He had a hard time throwing strikes to get ahead and then he takes something off and, boy, they hit that hard.

"And Veres, he gave up five straight hits. He didn't get the job done."

Burlington put up three runs in the sixth off reliever Miguel Tapia, who threw well in the fourth and fifth innings. However, Tapia walked a pair of batters in the sixth and uncorked two wild pitches - one scoring a run. That was followed by Francis' two-run double, and, two batters later, the lights went out.

"Pick a number," Dillard said of why Tapia struggled in his third inning of relief. "He just fell apart in that inning. Some things went wrong and he just fell apart out there."

The River Bandits' lone All-Star, Charlie Cutler, was a bright spot, reaching base in all five plate appearances and collecting three singles, a run and an RBI in the process.

BURLINGTON 12, QUAD-CITIES 4

CAMEL CLUTCHES: In addition to tonight's game serving as the Bandits' first Independence Day celebration, noted former WWE wrestler Sgt. Slaughter will make a public appearance at Modern Woodmen Park.

HOLES IN GLOVES: The River Bandits' porous defense early didn't help QC climb out of the Midwest League basement in fielding percentage. Quad-Cities committed four errors, two on errant pickoff attempts by starter Gary Daley, who was lifted midway through the third inning.

REVERSE SOMBRERO?: If the dreaded "Golden Sombrero" is designated for a batter who strikes out four times in a game, Burlington leadoff hitter Marc Maddox earned the opposite award Wednesday. Maddox, who made his first appearance in the Burlington lineup, walked five times, scoring on three of those. He also had a base hit in the third inning.

NEXT: Burlington at Quad-Cities, 7 p.m., today.