Louisville, KY --- Justin Nicolino blanked Durham into the ninth inning to lead the Louisville Bats past the Bulls 5-3 at Slugger Field on Saturday night.Nicolino (W, 2-2) came within one strike of a complete game shutout before the Bulls (28-19) stormed back into contention. Trailing 5-0 and Jake Bauers
Louisville, KY --- Justin Nicolino blanked Durham into the ninth inning to lead the Louisville Bats past the Bulls 5-3 at Slugger Field on Saturday night.
Nicolino (W, 2-2) came within one strike of a complete game shutout before the Bulls (28-19) stormed back into contention. Trailing 5-0 and Jake Bauers down to Durham's last strike, but Bauers collected his third hit of the game to extend the game and begin Durham's rally. Jason Coats then singled and Justin Williams was hit to fill the bases. Adam Moore stroked a two-run single to left-center to draw the Bulls to within 5-2 before Nicolino was lifted.
Kevin Quackenbush (S, 5) allowed an RBI-double down the right field line by Jeremy Hazelbaker to make it 5-3. But Quackenbush fanned Andrew Velazquez with the tying runs in scoring position to end the game.
Zach Lee (L, 0-1) suffered the loss in his first Durham start. Lee faced the minimum over the first three innings, but allowed five doubles in the next two innings as Louisville (15-30) took a 4-0 lead. Lee departed after six frames, yielding four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts.
Hunter Wood surrendered an unearned run in his two innings.
With Norfolk defeating Toledo, the Bulls' lead in the South was trimmed to 1/2 game over the Tides.
The series continues Sunday at 6:00 PM ET with Ryan Weber (0-1, 2.93) expected to oppose Louisville's José López (0-5, 5.31).
