Durham falls 6-5 after late Gwinnett homers spoil rally

Unearned runs opened the door, and Gwinnett kicked it wide open in the sixth. Durham had enough offense to stay in the game, but the Bulls could not protect a brief lead or survive the Stripers’ late power surge in a 6-5 loss Tuesday night at Gwinnett Field.

The Bulls were the first team to score after Joe Boyle gave them three sharp rehab innings, allowing one hit, two walks and no runs while striking out four. Durham cashed in when Anthony Molina committed a throwing error, handing the Bulls an early edge and a chance to control an opener they had every reason to believe they could steal.

That edge evaporated in the sixth, where the game turned on the kind of sequence that defines Triple-A baseball. Andrew Wantz was hit for four runs in the inning, and Gwinnett strung together a leadoff walk by Ben Gamel and five straight singles to seize a 4-2 lead. The Stripers kept pressure on every pitch, turning a tight contest into a chase for Durham.

The Bulls answered in the seventh and briefly pulled back level when a safety squeeze was mishandled by Hunter Stratton, allowing Durham to claw its way to 4-4. But the tie did not last long. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. stepped in against Evan Reifert and launched a 2-1 pitch for a go-ahead homer in the seventh, the kind of swing that flipped the game back to Gwinnett and quieted Durham’s comeback momentum.

Brewer Hicklen added another solo shot in the eighth to push the Stripers ahead 6-4, leaving Durham to scrape for one last rally. The Bulls got one run back on a fielder’s choice grounder by Homer Bush Jr. and brought the tying run into motion, but Carson Williams struck out after an ABS challenge ended the at-bat and sealed the loss.

Durham did not disappear offensively. The Bulls reached base often and posted a season-high walk total, but the big hit with runners aboard never arrived when it mattered most. Gwinnett, meanwhile, kept adding just enough damage to improve to 25-15 and win its fourth straight series opener. Durham fell to 15-25 in a game that lasted 2 hours and 34 minutes before 1,060 fans in clear 72-degree weather with a 9 mph wind blowing left to right.

This was the sort of one-run, one-inning game that can shape a series. Durham had chances to put it away early and respond late, but the sixth inning and Gwinnett’s two late home runs left the Bulls with little margin and no opening-night payoff.