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Cruz Walk Off Grand Slam Gives WhiteWings Win

June 26, 2009 - United League Baseball (ULB)
Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings News Release


Harlingen - Alberto Cruz hit a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings (7-8) to a 6-5 victory over the Edinburg Roadrunners (7-8) tonight at Harlingen Field.

With a 5-2 lead, Roadrunners reliever Raymond Silva (0-1) started the bottom of the ninth inning by striking out Casey Allen on three pitches and getting ahead of Danny Etkin 0-2. He threw four-straight pitches outside of the strike zone to walk Etkin. Stephen Ward then drew a six-pitch walk. Agustin Septimo lined out to a sliding Robert Matlock in leftfield for the second out, but Rico Santana followed with a four-pitch walk. Cruz came up and crushed a 1-1 pitch over the leftfield wall to give the WhiteWings the win.

That made a winner of Todd Lutz (2-1), who pitched three scoreless innings of relief.

The Roadrunners had a chance to score some insurance runs against Lutz in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Eric Gonzalez grounded into a double play with outs being recorded at home and first base and Angel Reyes grounded out to end the threat.

The Roadrunners started the scoring against Maximino de la Cruz in the fourth. Carlos Hereaud started off the inning with a double to snap a string of eight-straight outs. After a steal of third, Hereaud scored on a one-out RBI-single by Gonzalez to make it 1-0.

In the top of the fifth, Osiel Fores led off with a single. One out later, Matlock doubled. One out after that, Hereaud hit a two-run double to make it 3-0.

Gonzalez led off the sixth with a single and Reyes followed with a single, moving Gonzalez to third. Reyes went to second on an error. After an intentional walk to Amado German, de la Cruz picked up two outs before giving up RBI-singles to Matlock and Vincent Blue to make it 5-0.

That would be all for de la Cruz, who struck out six while allowing 11 hits and one intentional walk in his return to the WhiteWings.

In the bottom of the sixth, the WhiteWings finally broke through against Aaron Guerra. Septimo and Santana started off the inning with back-to-back doubles to spoil the shutout. Two outs later, Welinson Baez reached on an infield single to move Santana to third and knock out Guerra. Ricardo Serrano came in and gave up an RBI-single to Joaquin Rodriguez to make it 5-2.

Guerra struck out six while scattering six hits without issuing a walk in his return to the Roadrunners.

The WhiteWings and Roadrunners play game four of this four-game series tomorrow night at 7:05 at Harlingen Field. Right-hander Reymond Cruz (2-1) is expected to face left-hander Pedro Flores (0-1).



United League Baseball Stories from June 26, 2009


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