Fast start, bad call dooms Bulls

  Keep the champagne on ice, throw some saran wrap over the steak and keep the victory cigars in their cases. The Bulls will have to wait at least one more day to celebrate a playoff berth and their fifth division title in six years, as they fell to the Charlotte Knights last night in a 10-7 slugfest.

After the Knights batters knocked around Durham starter Delvin James for six runs in two innings, the Bulls responded in their half of the second with an offensive outburst of their own. With three runs having already scored in the inning and Durham trailing 6-4, Duke alumnus Ryan Jackson pummeled Brian Cooper's 3-2 pitch well over the right field wall to knot the game at 6.

The Bulls went ahead 7-6 in the fourth inning when Jason Smith trotted home on a ball off the bat of Matt Diaz that Charlotte third baseman Ryan Hankins let through into left field. Durham's lead evaporated as quickly as it was achieved, however, as Charlotte designated hitter Mike Rivera laced a two-run double into center the next half-inning to put the Knights back in front 8-7. Charlotte's bullpen made sure that this lead would stand, as five Knights relievers combined to shut the Bulls out for the final five innings.

"Yeah, this was not a good night for us," Durham manager Bill Evers said. "We didn't pitch well. We had a chance in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to score some runs and ended up leaving seven guys on base."

The Knights jumped on James right at the outset, plating four runs in the first inning. Charlotte second baseman and International League rookie of the year Aaron Miles led things off with a single. After James retired the second batter, first baseman Ross Gload rifled a single to left, who turned out to be on his way to hitting for the cycle, just the third in Durham Athletic Ball Park's history. Center fielder Joe Borchard then came up to drive in Charlotte's first run of the game, banging James' pitch down the line for a double. The most damaging blow came when right fielder Armando Rios approached the plate two batters later and deposited a three-run home run into the lawn seating area in left center.

While last night's game featured displays of high powered offense, it was ultimately decided by pitching. With the Bulls scoring six runs in the first two innings it appeared that they would roll on to victory. This proved not to be the case though, as the Knights bullpen shut them down.

"We just ran out of gas out there," Jason Smith said. "This was good for us in some ways at least because our offense hadn't really been hitting the ball like we are capable of doing."

Leaving seven men on base from the fourth inning on, Durham had their fair share of opportunities to come back. Perhaps their best opportunity presented itself in the bottom of the sixth, when they loaded the bases without even recording a base hit. Short stop Jorge Cantu left the bases loaded when he ended the inning by grounding out to his counterpart, but the biggest missed opportunity of that inning for the Bulls may have come two batters earlier when Chris Truby lined a ball off the glove of Charlotte reliever Billy Koch. Jeff Liefer, who was on first, remained at first thinking that Koch had caught the ball. But by the time Liefer realized the contrary and attempted to advance to second base, it was too late.

"We had opportunities," Evers said. "You know, we had a man on third with one out in the fifth and we didn't get it done. That really could have changed the momentum of the game."