Three outs away from a national title, Aces bullpen falters in loss to Durham Bulls

For eight innings, it appeared as if the Reno Aces would grind out another yet another gritty one-run win to claim their second Triple-A national championship.

The Aces were just three outs away from the club's second national championship, but a disastrous five-run ninth inning for the Bulls put a national championship out of Reno's reach. Durham topped Reno, 10-6, to clinch the Bulls' second straight Triple-A title.

Arizona Diamondbacks prospect Deyni Olivero, who spent most of the season with Double-A Amarillo, was tabbed to start the game and was roughed up for four runs in 1 2/3 innings before giving way to Edwin Uceta, who pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief. 

While the Aces bullpen cooled off Durham's bats, the Aces offense woke up, powered by Alek Thomas' clutch two-out, two-run homer in the second -- and capped off with Dominic Canzone's two-out homer into the right center field bar at Las Vegas Ballpark to put Reno out in front, 6 to 5.

But in the ninth, J.B. Wendelken issued two walks and surrendered a pair of RBI hits to give up the lead, and Durham shortstop Tristan Gray hit a three-run homer off J.B. Bukauskas to push the Bulls' lead to 10-6.

Durham reliever Dusten Knight set down the Aces in order to seal the win.

The Aces wrapped up the season with a club-record 85 regular-season wins and Reno's second Pacific Coast League title, the first since 2012.

Jim Krajewski covers high school and youth sports for the Reno Gazette Journal. Follow him on Twitter @RGJPreps. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com.