Brown Goes Deep Again; Durham Downs Charlotte, 5-3

Charlotte, NC --- One night after committing seven errors and permitting 17 runs, the Durham Bulls bounced back with a 5-2 victory over second place Charlotte on Wednesday night.

Corey Brown drilled a majestic three-run homer to right in the seventh, breaking a 2-2 tie. Brown moved into the International League lead in homers with his 14th, and his third in as many games.

On a night where the Bulls (45-41) had a paucity of available pitching, Robert Zarate provided precisely what the Bulls needed. Never having pitched beyond five innings and 77 pitches, Zarate threw 102 over 5 2/3 innings, concluding his outing with a called strikeout of Chris Marrero. From there, CJ Riefenhauser (W, 1-2) retired all four batters he faced after working an inning on Tuesday. Jhan Marinez (S, 2) recorded his second save of the season by pitching the final two innings as the only other reliever available.

Nick Franklin went 3-4 to lead the Bulls offense, tripling and scoring on a Mikie Mahtook double in the second. Franklin then tied the game 2-2 in the sixth on a single to right to score JP Arencibia from second base.

Charlotte hit two more homers, both solo shots off of Zarate, after drilling five on Tuesday.

The Bulls remained five games behind first place Norfolk, which won at Gwinnett on Wednesday.

The road trip and series wraps up on Thursday with Bradin Hagens (0-0, 1.13) starting against Shawn Haviland (4-4, 4.19) at 7:05 PM ET from BB&T Ballpark.