PawSox Season Ends in 7-0 Loss to Durham
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2013
PAWTUCKET, RI - The Durham Bulls scored early to grab a quick 7-0 lead and their pitching held the PawSox to just two singles in their victory to claim their 4th Governors' Cup since 2002 in beating Pawtucket 3-1 in the best-of-five series.
Fighting for their playoff lives, the Pawtucket Red Sox needed a victory in Game Four over Durham to keep their season going.
It took 14 innings for someone to score in Game Three, but Durham took just five batters to plate Saturday's first run. With two outs, knuckleballer Charlie Haeger walked Tim Beckham on four pitches. Vince Belnome then singled and Jason Bourgeois followed with an RBI single to put the Bulls in front 1-0.
In the 2nd, Mike Fontenot single with one out before Kevin Kiermaier homered to right putting Durham on top 3-0.
Haeger would walk the lead-off batter in the 3rd before getting a double play ground out. But, Brandon Guyer tripled and Shelley Duncan doubled him home to make it a 4-0 game. That would be Haeger's last pitch as he exited to contest. Brock Huntzinger came in and retired the first batter he faced to get out of the 3rd inning. Haeger's would last a season low 2.2 innings allowing four runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and a pair of strikeouts. He threw 55 pitches, 32 were strikes.
Huntzinger would provide the PawSox with 2.1 solid inning of relief allowing just one walk, but in the 6th issued a one out free pass to Shelley Duncan. A batter later Mike Fontenot tripled to center making it a 5-0 lead for Durham. Terry Doyle would come in out of the bullpen and retire the first batter he faced before allowing a two-out RBI single to Kiermaier swelling the lead to 6-0. A wild pitch moved Kiermaier from 1st to 3rd before Cole Figueroa lined a single to center tack on another run making it 7-0 Bulls.
Durham starter Merrill Kelly set to tone early on the mound retiring the first 10 batters he faced. He would go six shutout innings allowing just two hits while striking out seven.
Jonathan Diaz had both of the PawSox hits in the loss.
Thank you to all of our terrific PawSox fans for an outstanding 2013 season and we hope to see out at McCoy Stadium during the 2014 season!