McDougal Sharp, Knights Falter Late

NASHVILLE, TN – The Charlotte Knights came out ready to play on Sunday and were the dominant team for the game’s first five innings. Starting pitcher Tanner McDougal made sure of it. Unfortunately, when the contest hit crunch time, mistakes began to pile up and the Nashville Sounds became the beneficiary victors. In the end, Nashville walked away with a 7-5 win.

McDougal held the Sounds to one run on just two hits over five innings. The offense staked McDougal to a healthy advantage with a third inning RBI groundout by Dustin Harris, and fourth inning RBI hits from Drew Romo and Dru Baker. The scoring continued with an RBI single by Jacob Gonzalez in the fifth.

Charlotte had a few opportunities to add to their lead when they put the first two runner’s aboard in the sixth and the leadoff man reached in the eighth; however, Nashville caught Charlotte on the basepaths with a critical double-play to escape the sixth inning jam, then worked around the leadoff runner in the latter instance.

The Sounds bats did some damage when McDougal exited with two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Still, the Knights led 5-3 entering the home half of the eighth inning. Unfortunately strikes became hard to come by and the Sounds took full advantage.

Nashville scored four runs off two Charlotte relievers, all with two outs, without hitting the ball out of the infield. Three walks, two hit-by-pitches, and two-wild pitches led to all of the damage. The Knights did rally in the top of the ninth but came up short with the trying run at first base.

Despite dropping four-out-of-five to the Sounds, the Knights were in position to win every game in the series. Next up is Charlotte’s first look at the Memphis Redbirds, and it will be back in a familiar setting – Truist Field. Game One of the homestand is slated for Tuesday evening at 6:35pm ET.