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Third to first

Adrian Nieto got the start behind the plate Sunday with Andre Rienzo on the mound, giving the rookie some at-bats and providing a mental health day for Tyler Flowers. The White Sox starting catcher is in a 0-for-22 drought with 18 strikeouts.

"The way [Flowers] has been swinging, he's been working on things, timing, mechanical stuff, and it can wear on you," Ventura said. "So it's a combo."

"If it was easy, everybody would do it up here," said White Sox captain Paul Konerko in support of Flowers. "It's not easy. But he's done a lot of good things and he's got to remember that, and it can turn. It will turn. And when it turns, it usually turns for a long time. So you just got to keep grinding and doing it the right way, which he is."

• Freshman outfielders Corey Ray (Louisville) and Ro Coleman (Vanderbilt), who were teammates at Chicago's Simeon Career Academy, are the first products of the White Sox Amateur City Elite (ACE) program to compete at the College World Series.

Coleman went 1-4 with a run scored Saturday night, while Ray was 0-3 with a walk as Vanderbilt defeated Louisville, 5-2, in Game 2 of the College World Series in Omaha.

Avisail Garcia continued to play catch Sunday, under the guidance of White Sox head athletic trainer Herm Schneider. Garcia, who was lost for the season after undergoing April surgery to repair a torn labrum and avulsion fracture in his left shoulder, threw from up to 200 feet on Sunday.

Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin.
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