Bulls Blast By Pawtucket, 5-1

Pawtucket, RI --- JP Arencibia stroked a tie-breaking three-run homer in the sixth to lift the Durham Bulls by the Pawtucket Red Sox 5-1 on Friday night at McCoy Stadium.

Arencibia's second home run of the year was one of three mashed by the Bulls (13-10) as they moved to 4-1 on a seven-game North Division road trip. Taylor Motter led off the game with a homer to left against starter Matt Barnes, while former PawSox Corey Brown drilled his third of the year to start the eighth against losing pitcher Keith Couch (L, 1-4).

Jim Patterson slid into Friday night's start for Alex Colome, who was activated from the disabled list by Tampa Bay on Thursday. Patterson, who worked 3 2/3 innings on Sunday in a doubleheader start against Gwinnett, matched that distance against the PawSox (14-9). Patterson allowed only a run on three hits, while fanning four.

Jhan Marinez (W, 1-0) pitched three scoreless innings in long relief to earn his first Bulls win. Bryce Stowell and Ronald Belisario combined for the final seven outs to close out the win.

The game marked the first of seven head-to-head contests between the last two Governors Cup champions. The Bulls exacted some revenge on Couch, who worked 6 2/3 innings of one-hit ball in Game Five of the championship last September, earning the decisive win.

Game two of the series is Saturday with Matt Buschmann (2-1, 2.81) opposing Eddie Rodriguez (2-0, 1.93) at 1:05 PM ET.