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Thunder Beats WhiteWings

July 25, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings News Release


HARLINGEN- Brian Murphy was McAllen's stopper Wednesday night at Harlingen Field, limiting the Rio Grande Valley to only two runs in seven innings to end the Thunder's seven game losing streak against the WhiteWings, 4-2.

"I was keeping the ball down and threw a lot of fastballs," said Murphy (4-4), who didn't strike out any WhiteWings hitters but also kept them off the scoreboard until the seventh inning. "I knew our bullpen was short after yesterday and needed to go six or seven innings and was able to." The WhiteWings beat McAllen, 17-5, on Tuesday.

Craig Hertler greeted Ricardo Esteves, a 28-year-old Cuban righthander making his first start as a WhiteWing pitcher, with an opposite field double to left then scored on two ground balls to give McAllen a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Thunder (21-38) added two more runs in the second when Hertler drove in Roberto Rodriguez on a sacrifice fly to left field and Yaser Gomez singled in newcomer Lyndon Poole to make the score 3-0.

Poole, a former Dodgers farmhand obtained in a trade with San Angelo, collected two hits in his McAllen debut and made a fine sliding catch to end the third inning and halt a Rio Grande Valley (33-25) scoring threat.

McAllen would score another run in the seventh when catcher Mario Mercedes dropped a relay on the back of a double steal attempt that allowed Gomez, who also had two hits, to score.

Rio Grande Valley would score their two runs in the bottom of the seventh on RBI singles from Luis Sumoza and Bryan Marquez, but could not get any closer.

In the ninth, Romulo Ruiz greeted Chad Robinson with his third hit of the game and Mercedes followed with his second, but Robinson then retired the next three hitters to earn his ninth save.

Estevez (0-1) took the loss after allowing three runs in five innings on seven hits.

The WhiteWings host the Thunder in the final game of their four game series tonight at 7:05 p.m. Fans who bring in five canned food items can get a free reserved ticket courtesy of the Valley Food Bank.

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