WRAL Sports Fan

Bulls

Bulls lead Redbirds, 1-0, in bottom of the third

Sep 22, 2009

Durham already has the International League title under its belt - now the Bulls are gunning for a national title.

Desmond Jennings has given the Bulls a 1-0 lead over Memphis of the Pacific Coast League in the bottom of the third with an RBI double to center that drove in Ray Olmedo.

Jeremy Hellickson has thrown three shutout innings to keep Memphis off the board.

Durham won its third title in eight years – and will face the Pacific Coast League champions in the final game.

Durham won the International League title with a three-game sweep of Scranton-Wilkes Barre. The Yankees had beaten the Bulls last year in the championship series.

Memphis has not lost a postseason game and beat Sacramento in the Pacific Coast championship series.

Minor League Baseball has had an on-again, off-again approach to crowning a national champion. From the 1930s through the mid-1970s, the winners of the International League and American Association met in the Junior World Series. The late-1980s saw the championship return as the Triple-A Classic. Las Vegas hosted three years of the Triple-A World Series from 1998 to 2000.

In the Bulls' two seasons as International League champs – 2002 and 2003 – postseason play ended with the Governor's Cup. 

In 2004, Minor League Baseball reinstated a national, Triple-A championship game pitting the winners of the International and Pacific Coast leagues.