Jacob Gonzalez powers Knights past Sounds with career-high seven RBI

Jacob Gonzalez turned a high-scoring night into a statement, launching two three-run homers and driving in a career-high seven runs as the Charlotte Knights edged the Nashville Sounds 11-9 before 8,204 at Truist Field.

The 3-for-4 performance came with the game already teetering. Charlotte trailed 5-2 in the third inning after Brock Wilken’s three-RBI triple put Nashville in front, but the Knights answered with the next six runs to seize control. Gonzalez fueled that surge with his first blast, then struck again later to help push the lead to 11-6. Jarred Kelenic and Michael Turner also homered for Charlotte, giving the Knights production from multiple spots in the lineup rather than a single runaway inning from one hitter.

For Gonzalez, the line was more than a box-score oddity. The seven RBIs showed a hitter who kept finding the pitches he could drive and did not waste chances with runners aboard, a strong sign for a player trying to force his way into a bigger role. The 23-year-old, a first-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2023 out of Mississippi, entered the night as one of the organization’s top prospects and left with a season line of seven home runs and 23 RBI in 88 at-bats. Nights like this are the kind that change the conversation around a prospect from “promising” to “ready.”

The game never settled down long enough for Charlotte to coast. Nashville matched its season high with nine runs, Eddys Leonard homered twice for his second multi-homer game of the season, and the Sounds kept pressing after Charlotte’s four-run fourth. The box score also showed ABS challenges and Jen Pawol behind the plate, underscoring how much stop-start tension ran through a game that lasted 2 hours, 49 minutes with first pitch at 7:06 p.m.

Charlotte’s bullpen still had to finish the job in stressful fashion. The Sounds scored two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth before Wikelman Gonzalez closed it out for his first save of the season, working the final 2.1 innings and striking out six. The Knights’ staff finished with 16 strikeouts, their highest total in a game this season, while Ben Peoples added another scoreless relief outing. The win was Charlotte’s third straight and moved it within 1.5 games of first place in the International League East, but the nine runs allowed left clear evidence that the offense is carrying real weight while the run prevention still has work to do.