DURHAM — Though catcher Carlos Corporan hadn’t recorded a single hit in his two games with the Durham Bulls this season, manager Jared Sandberg had no choice but to send the veteran entering his 14th season to the plate with runners on the corners and one out gone in the 11th inning of a tied game against Gwinnett (3-2).
There was nobody on the bench available to pinch hit, so 0-fer status or not, Corporan was going to the plate.
And in the biggest moment of the game, Corporan broke his hitless streak with a walk-off single to score Kyle Roller for the 6-5 series-opening win Monday night.
“It’s a good win,” Sandberg said. “To get out to a 4-0 lead and give up the lead especially late on a home run. And then walkoff wins, late inning wins are huge. It helps build the chemistry and camaraderie.”
Mikie Mahtook opened the game in front of a crowd of 3,414 with a leadoff triple to center field — his third of the season — and was brought home a couple batters later on a RBI groundout by Taylor Motter. With his deep ball, Mahtook already matched his total triple output with the Bulls from last season.
Mahtook hit another deep ball, this time off the Blue Monster, in the second to drive in two runs. He tried to leg out a double, but thought better of it and began to sprint back to first. However, he slipped twice and got caught between the two bases for the final out of the second.
In the third, reigning IL Batter of the Week Richie Shaffer doubled to score Motter, who reached second in the previous at-bat on his own double, and give the Bulls a 4-0 lead.
But despite jumping ahead early, the Bulls (4-1) struggled to find any offense late as Ryan Weber shutdown Durham for four innings, allowing just two hits in his time on the mound.
“Weber kept us off balance, did a nice job of mixing his pitches, sinker, slider,” Sandberg said. “We couldn’t get anything going.”
And while Weber kept the Bulls from adding to their lead, Matt Tuiasosopo helped Gwinnett climb back in the game.
A double by Tuiasosopo and an RBI single by Tyler Moore in the fourth gave Gwinnett its first run in the fourth, and the Braves added a pair of runs in the fifth as southpaw Adam Wilk got into some trouble and gave up two runs. He pitched 4 ⅔ innings, giving up three runs on six hits. Dylan Floro came on in relief and pitched through the rest of the inning without giving up another run.
Though he preserved Durham’s lead in the fifth, Floro gave up a home run to Tuiasosopo in the sixth — 11 pitches into his outing — to tie the game at 4. But Floro regained his composure and prevented Gwinnett from adding any additional runs through the rest of the inning. But when he hit Tuiasosopo and gave up a single to Moore with one out gone in the eighth, he was pulled for Ryan Garton with bases loaded.
Garton got the job done and finished the inning with a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat and keep the score knotted at 4 apiece.
With the game tied at 4 in the top of the ninth, Ryan Garton gave the Bulls another chance to pull ahead by striking out Tuiasosopo with Gwinnett runners on the corners.
Before stepping up to the plate in the ninth, Tuiasosopo had one RBI and two runs on two hits. The two battled through Tuiasosopo’s appearance, and after nine pitches Garton delivered the fatal blow to get Tuiasosopo to strike out swinging, preserving the 4-4 tie entering the bottom of the frame.
“We got a big strikeout in his third or fourth at bat,” Sandberg said. “That was a big strikeout in that situation, so I mean, he hit some pretty pitches. Hit a double down the right field line but he did miss a couple of those pitches.”
Though the Bulls kept Tuiasosopo from pushing the Braves ahead in that situation, he did hit his second homer of the night in the 11th to briefly pull the Braves ahead 5-4.
That’s when Durham, which left a whopping 16 men on base, broke out of its offensive funk led by hits from Dayron Varona and Corporan.
“Not sure how many were left on base but our pitchers pitched extremely well to limit the damage,” Sandberg said. “We got a 4-0 lead, but it was a heck of a way for us to finish that game. It was extremely cool.”