Knights show toughness in come-from-behind, 11-inning road win

The Knights showed a lot of grit in a thrilling 5-4, 11-inning win on the road tonight against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

With just one run through seven innings, it looked like the offense would continue to sputter without Jake Burger’s bat.  But the team got up off the mat in the top of the eighth and strung together three doubles and a single, along with a big Jumbo Shrimp error, to tie the game at 4-4.

The bullpen then stepped up, shutting down Jacksonville until the offense could push across a run in the top of the 11th on a Ti’Quan Forbes RBI single.  Connor Sadzeck looked as though he was going to give the run back in the bottom half of the inning, when he wild-pitched the designated runner to third base with no outs. But he got a strikeout and a groundout to set up a dramatic at bat against Jacksonville catcher Brian Navarreto.  With two strikes, Navarreto hit a liner to centerfield that Luis Gonzalez snared on a terrific diving grab to end the game.

The Knights need players to step up without Burger or Gavin Sheets in the lineup, and tonight several did, led by Mikie Mahtook, who hit his 10 homer and sixth double of the season.  Marco Hernandez added a double and two singles to boost his batting average to .306.

Mike Wright started and gave up four earned runs over 5.2 inings.  He walked three and gave up two homers, along with just two strikeouts — not the line score we are accustomed to seeing from Wright.

But Hunter Schryver, Will Carter, Matt Tomshaw, Zack Burdi, Nik Turley and Sadzeck followed with 5.1 innings of hitless relief work, along with seven strikeouts.  Turley got the win and Sadzeck got the save.

Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox

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