Knights Polish Off Bulls, 12-7

Charlotte, NC --- Leury Garcia hit a grand slam and drove in six runs to lead Charlotte to a 12-7 victory over Durham, completing a three-game sweep at BB&T Ballpark on Thursday night.

Garcia drove out a 2-0 pitch from Bulls starter Jaime Schultz (L, 5-6) with the bases loaded in the second inning to cap a six-run inning. Schultz was knocked out after 1 2/3 innings and throwing 41 pitches in the second inning alone. With five strikeouts, Schultz increased his minor league baseball leading strikeout total to 160.

Johnny Field connected for a solo home run in the third to make it 6-1, but the Knights added three runs in the middle frames to take a 9-1 lead. The Bulls then ran short on pitching in the eighth, resorting to outfielder Jaff Decker pitching the eighth, allowing three runs before the Bulls offense rallied for four runs in the top of the ninth to close the gap to 12-7.

Dana Eveland worked 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief, lowering his ERA to 0.39. Eveland has permitted just one run this season.

JP Arencibia had a pair of hits and drove in three runs for Durham.

With the loss, the Bulls fell four games behind first-place Charlotte with 11 games remaining. The Bulls completed the season series winning 13 of 24 games against the Knights.

Durham returns home Friday night at 7:05 PM ET in the series opener against the Gwinnett Braves.