Thursday March 28th, 2024 4:23AM

Bulls take pitchers' duel over G-Braves

By staff
DURHAM, N.C. -- When the Gwinnett Braves and Durham Bulls met last week at Coolray Field, the two teams combined for 65 runs in a split of their four-game series. So, it seemed only logical that when the two teams met in the opening game of the series in Durham that a high scoring game would be in order. The starting pitchers had other plans, as the G-Braves were shutdown by Chris Archer and the Bulls, 1-0 on Thursday night as Yohan Flande allowed no earned runs over 6.0 innings of work.

The only run of the game came against Flande in the bottom of the fifth. Nevin Ashley led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a single to center by Rich Thompson. Ashley would move to third on the play as Gwinnett centerfielder Jose Constanza bobbled to the ball and was charged with an error. Ashley then scored from third on a 6-4-3 double play ball hit by former Braves' infielder Brooks Conrad.

Archer (W, 6-8) worked six scoreless innings to pick up the win, as he allowed only three hits and struck out three. Archer was aided by the bullpen work from Brandon Gomes who pitched 2.0 scoreless innings with two strikeouts and Dane De La Rose (S, 13) who pitched a scoreless ninth with one hit and three strikeouts en route to his 13th save of the season.

Flande (L, 5-8) suffered his first loss since July 17 despite giving the G-Braves a quality start of 6.0 innings with five hits and one unearned run. The left-hander walked four and struck out seven, meanwhile Billy Bullock worked a scoreless seventh with two walks and one strikeout. Cole McCurry pitched a scoreless eighth with two hits and one strikeout.

At the plate, Jack Wilson had the only extra-base hit of the game with a double in the first inning, part of his 1-for-3 night. The other G-Braves hits came from Ernesto Mejia, Terry Tiffee and Rusty Ryal. Stefan Gartrell had his 11-game hitting snapped with a 0-for-3 night.

Gwinnett (61-52) and Durham (53-60) meet in game two of the four-game series in Durham on Friday night. Right-hander Miguel Batista (1-0, 3.60) will pitch for the G-Braves against Durham right-hander Alex Colome (0-0, 0.00) with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Listen to the broadcast on AM 550/FM 102.9 WDUN in Gainesville with Tony Schiavone calling the play by play.
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