Ninth-Inning Rally Leads Durham Bulls Past Gwinnett

Lawrenceville, GA — The Durham Bulls scored three times in the top of the ninth to steal away a 3-1 win over the Gwinnett Stripers at Gwinnett Field on Thursday night.

The Bulls (28-19) were three-hit into the ninth, trailing 1-0 before the game-winning rally started on a bloop double by Tatem Levins. Rolddy Munoz (L, 0-3), who started the ninth, then proceeded to hit the next two batters before walking Logan Davidson on four pitches to tie the game. Jake Cave then drilled a sacrifice fly to deep right-center when Patrick Clohisy made a spectacular diving catch into the warning track, but Oliver Dunn scored to put the Bulls ahead 2-1. Homer Bush then executed a safety squeeze to score Blake Sabol and a 3-1 lead.

Kodi Whitley (S, 1) notched his first save of the season, inducing a flyout to left from Chuckie Robinson, who was batting as the potential winning run for the Stripers (23-25).

Chris Clark (W, 1-1) earned his first Triple-A win by tossing three scoreless innings. Clark was buoyed by Dunn’s sensational diving stop of a Kyle Farmer smash up the middle in the sixth, converting the would-be two-run single into the final out of the inning to keep the deficit at 1-0.

Gwinnett scored the game’s first run in the second inning when Farmer bounced a single to right field to score Brett Wisely, who had walked and stolen second base against Bulls opener Alexander Alberto.

Alberto (2IP/1ER), Alex Cook (1IP/0R), Ty Johnson (2IP/0R), Clark (3IP/0R) and Whitley (1IP/0R) combined on the seven-hitter and gave the Bulls a 2-1 series edge.

With the victory, the Bulls pulled to within 1/2 game of the top of the International League.The series continues on Friday night with Logan Workman (1-6, 6.81) expected to oppose Gwinnett’s Dru Hackenberg (1-1, 6.60) at 7:05 PM ET.