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Knights Return Home After 11 Road Games

Burger, Goodwin & Mahtook Led The Way With Homers
June 1, 2021

The Charlotte Knights wrapped up a rain-shortened, 11-game road trip on Sunday afternoon and will now return home to Truist Field on Tuesday, June 1st to open a six-game homestand against the Nashville Sounds (Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers). Overall, the Knights played 11 games on the trip and

The Charlotte Knights wrapped up a rain-shortened, 11-game road trip on Sunday afternoon and will now return home to Truist Field on Tuesday, June 1st to open a six-game homestand against the Nashville Sounds (Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers).

Overall, the Knights played 11 games on the trip and posted a 2-9 record between their six-game series against the Durham Bulls and their rain-shortened five-game series against the Norfolk Tides. The road trip was supposed to consist of 12 games in 13 days, but the game on Saturday, May 29th was postponed due to rain in Norfolk, Va.

HOW IT STARTED
The trip started on Tuesday, May 18th in Durham, NC against the Bulls. Making their first trip to Durham Bulls Athletic Park since August 19-22, 2019, the Knights were ready to compete against their in-state rivals. Fresh off of winning five of their last six games to close out their first homestand of the 2021 season -- and four-straight games -- the team dropped the opener in Durham by a score of 7-2. Despite the loss, Charlotte’s offense continued to hit the long ball. Third baseman Jake Burger hit his first of three road homers during the week and outfielder Brian Goodwin launched his first as a member of the Knights.

AGAINST DURHAM
The Bulls continued their winning ways over the Knights and won five of six games in the series. Charlotte’s lone win came on Thursday, May 20th when they beat Durham by a score of 6-4. Down by a score of 4-2 in the eighth inning, the Knights charged back on Thursday. After the Knights loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, 1B Gavin Sheets drew a bases-loaded walk to pull the Knights to within one run, 4-3. 3B Tim Beckham then hit a go-ahead, two-run single to give the Knights a 5-4 lead. The Knights tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly RBI from RF Luis González.

STARS OF THE SERIES
OF Brian Goodwin connected on two solo home runs on Thursday, May 20th and had three homers over a three-game span in Durham. He homered in Tuesday’s opener for his first of the season. It was his first two-homer game since August 30, 2019 against the Boston Red Sox as a member of the LA Angels and the sixth two-homer game of his career. 3B Jake Burger also launched three home runs in the series against the Bulls and is the team leader in long balls with six. OF Mikie Mahtook, a former member of the Bulls, launched two homers against his old team.

Mahtook had two homers against the Bulls and three overall on the road trip.Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights

AGAINST THE TIDES
After winning five of six games against the Tides from May 11-16 at Truist Field earlier this year, the Knights won just one of their five games against the Tides in Norfolk, VA. The team did get some help from Chicago White Sox players Adam Engel and Jace Fry, who were both on major league rehab assignments. Engel led the Knights in the series with a .375 batting average in four games. Fry fanned four batters over two scoreless innings of work.

CRUSHING WIN
Charlotte's lone win of the series with Norfolk came on Friday, May 28th in a 17-5 romping of the Tides. 1B/OF Gavin Sheets and OF Mikie Mahtook launched mammoth home runs and RHP Mike Wright (1-1, 2.74) tossed seven effective innings to lead the Knights to a commanding 17-5 win over the Tides in game four of the six-game series from Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA on Friday. Offensively, every player in the Charlotte lineup had at least one hit on the evening.

In the game, the Knights combined to record 25 hits, their most of the season. 1B/OF Gavin Sheets launched a two-run home run in the third inning and finished the night 4-for-6 with three runs scored, the home run and two RBIs. OF Brian Goodwin also had a four-hit game and added three RBIs on the night. Additionally, OF Blake Rutherford, INF Tim Beckham and INF Marco Hernández had three hits apiece. Beckham also chipped in with three RBIs.

THE WRIGHT STUFF
RHP Mike Wright (1-1, 2.74) was solid over seven innings of work on Friday, May 28 en route to his first win of the season. The seven-inning start was just the second of the season by a Knights pitcher and first since LHP Matt Tomshaw’s seven-inning start on May 23. For the season, Wright has 29 strikeouts over 23.0 innings pitched. In two starts during the road trip, Wright went 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA (13.0 IP, 14 SO).

LOOKING AHEAD
Now, the Knights are set to return home to Truist Field at 7:04 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1st to open a six-game homestand against the Nashville Sounds (Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers). The “Voice of the Charlotte Knights” Matt Swierad and long-time Knights broadcaster Mike Pacheco will have the call on 730 The Game ESPN Charlotte and CharlotteKnights.com.