Sports stats



White Wings Sweep DH

July 13, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings News Release


HARLINGEN- Celson Polanco and Cole Stephens both threw complete games as the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings swept a doubleheader from the McAllen Thunder, 3-1 and 5-0 Friday night at Harlingen Field.

Stephens (4-2) shook off two poor starts to throw a seven inning complete game, allowing only six hits and fanning as many. Though he gave up Miguel Alfonzo's third home run of the season in the second inning, he retired the last 10 batters he faced.

Leivi Ventura collected the winning hit to break a 1-1 tie with a one-out double in the sixth inning over the head of Alfonzo in right field after it appeared Thunder pitcher Alex Smith (1-1) was initially going to walk the WhiteWings' cleanup hitter.

In the second game, Polanco (6-2) threw a one-hit shutout in the second game with Nick Mahin's single off the glove of leaping shortstop Leugim Barroso with one out in the fourth inning the only batter to reach base against him in the seven-inning game.

"I just tried to throw my first pitch for a strike," Polanco said. "They wanted to swing so I didn't want to fall behind."

So while Polanco would finish with just two strikeouts, he still proved to be dominant. He now is tied for the North American Baseball League lead in victories and leads the league with a 1.44 earned run average.

Neither Rio Grande Valley pitcher walked a hitter in their starts.

Offensively, Fidel Hernandez doubled in the first two runs of the second game in the first inning, while Ventura drove in a single run with a two-out single in the second then hit his second home run of the season for Rio Grande Valley in the sixth off Frank James (3-4) with a man aboard to cap the scoring.

The WhiteWings (28-19) swept the Thunder (16-32) in their four-game series and won eight of the nine games on their homestand.

"We feel more comfortable here. It's our stadium and we knew the pitchers [on McAllen]," said Ventura.

The WhiteWings, in second place in their division by 1 =C21/2 games, will travel to Edinburg for the first three of eight straight games with the first place Roadrunners tonight at 7:05 p.m. Brownsville native Henry Garcia (1-2) starts on the mound for Rio Grande Valley.

• Discuss this story on the North American League message board...

North American League Stories from July 13, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central