Melton’s sac fly lifts Bulls past Tides in 10th inning, 4-3

Jacob Melton gave the Durham Bulls the kind of finish that can travel beyond one night at the ballpark. His sacrifice fly in the 10th inning brought home Carson Williams and sealed a 4-3 walk-off win over the Norfolk Tides on Tuesday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The sequence had all the tension Triple-A baseball can pack into one extra frame. Williams began the inning as the automatic runner, raced to third on a wild pitch, and then waited while Melton worked an eight-pitch at-bat. When Melton lifted a ball deep enough to center field, Williams scored and Durham, which entered the series opener at 6-10, had a result that felt bigger than one line in the standings. For a prospect group trying to show it can handle pressure, that kind of late-game execution matters. It shows Melton can stay composed when the inning gets messy and the margin for error disappears.

Durham needed every bit of its pitching to get to that point. Logan Workman held Norfolk to three hits over six innings, struck out nine and did not walk a batter, giving the Bulls a firm base even after the Tides struck for their only runs in the third. Fernando Peguero opened the damage with a homer, and Jose Barrero followed with a two-run shot after a single in between. Workman steadied after that and handed the game to a bullpen that kept Norfolk off the board the rest of the way. Trevor Martin, Cam Booser, Andrew Wantz and Evan Reifert all threw hitless innings, and Reifert earned the win after a perfect ninth in which he struck out two and stranded the free runner.

Durham had already fought back from the early deficit before Melton finished it. Logan Davidson put the Bulls on top 1-0 with an RBI double in the second, and Williams tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the third. Blake Sabol later added an RBI double in the fifth to keep Durham within striking distance and set up the extra-inning finish.

The win also fit a familiar pattern at the DBAP. Durham had beaten Norfolk on Tre’ Morgan’s walk-off home run in September 2025, another late swing that turned a tight game into a home-club celebration. This time, Melton was the name on the final play, a useful reminder that Triple-A is where late-game execution and roster pressure meet. With Joe Rock recalled by Tampa Bay on April 10 and Edwin Uceta working on a rehab assignment in the system, every clean inning and every clutch at-bat can reshape attention. Melton’s sac fly did exactly that.