Defending IL Champs earn chance to defend title

With Saturday’s win, the Bulls advanced to their fourth Governors’ Cup Finals in the last six years.

The Durham Bulls defeated the Toledo Mud Hens 3-2 on Saturday night, September 8, 2018, winning the best-of-five series 3-1 and advancing to their second straight Governors’ Cup Finals.

The Bulls (3-1) scored first in the third inning with an RBI single by Jason Coats scoring Rob Refsnyder and giving the home team a 1-0 lead. Toledo answered back quickly in the fourth frame with a single to left by Harold Castro that scored Daz Cameron to even the game 1-1.

The score remained tied until the sixth inning when Brandon Snyder hit a single to left scoring Coats and putting the Bulls in front 2-1. Nate Lowe followed with a sacrifice fly extending the lead to 3-1. The Mud Hens (1-3) scratched across a run in the seventh inning with a single by Chad Huffman cutting the lead to 3-2.

Ruben Alaniz (W, 1-0) tossed 2.0 scoreless innings, with one walk and two strikeouts to secure his first win of the postseason. Jordan Harrison allowed one run on two hits but worked his way out of a two-runners on jam in the seventh with a 4-6-3 double play from Jason Krizan.

Kyle Bird, (S, 1) entered in the eighth inning, and worked around a hit, walk and hit batter to earn the save and send the Bulls to their fourth Governors’ Cup Finals in the last six seasons. Snyder finished with two hits including the game-winning RBI.

The Bulls will face the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in the Governors’ Cup Finals for the second straight season. The best-of-five series begins on Tuesday, September 11 in Scranton, and Games 3, 4 (if necessary) and 5 (if necessary) are scheduled to be played at the DBAP on September 13-15.

Thanks to DBBC’s Matt Sutor for this capcom story & photo.