Truist Field - Charlotte Knights

Round Rock Express (TEX) @ Charlotte Knights (CHW)

May 24, 2025

Express 8, Knights 6

W: Joe Barlow
L: Mike Clevinger

S: Luis Curvelo

HR: Marcus Smith (RR), Chad Wallach (RR), Brooks Baldwin (CLT), Colson Montgomery 2 (CLT)

Attendance: 6,814
Time of Game: 3 hours, 4 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Charlotte, NC
Opened: 2014
Capacity: 10,200
Level: Triple A
League: International

The second stop on my Memorial Day weekend trip took me to another park that I had visited before, twice in this case.  I first went to Truist Field in Charlotte, then BB&T Ballpark, on that same 2017 trip that took me to Winston-Salem.  Then I visited again a year later to see the White Sox play their AAA squad in an exhibition game right before the season started.  On this year's trip, I actually went to a pair of games at Truist Field.  I was able to complete a Kannapolis/Charlotte doubleheader on Sunday afternoon and evening.  For the purposes of this blog though, I'm only writing about the Saturday night game.

Truist Field remains my favorite minor league park of the close to 30 I have now visited.  It combines a state of the art facility that is big league caliber in many regards with incredible views of Uptown Charlotte rising above the stadium in right and center fields.  While there is not a bad view in the house, I personally recommend sitting on the third base side if possible to have the best skyline view possible.  An expansive concourse encircles the stadium right above the main seating level.  There is traditional stadium seating from foul pole to foul pole in foul territory and several rows of seating in both left and right fields as well, with a second level home run porch in right.  There are a few different premium seating areas behind home plate, at field level and behind glass at the top of the sections.  The second level is mostly made up of club seating and suites.  Really, if you could somehow just add an upper deck to the park, it would look like a major league stadium.  Except it would be a big league hitters paradise due to tight dimensions to all fields, particularly to right field which bumps right up to Mint Street running past the exterior of the park.  If Charlotte were ever to get a Major League franchise, this would be the ideal plot of land to put a stadium on if they could redirect a street or two.  That said, it makes a pretty great minor league park as is.

I am so tardy in writing this post that the biggest storyline of this game involved a player who has since been jettisoned by the White Sox.  Andrew Vaughn was the third pick of the 2019 draft by the White Sox and never played above High-A minor league ball on his way to the majors, primarily due to covid wiping out the 2020 minor league season.  He then made the Sox Opening Day roster in 2021 and had remained in the big leagues ever since (with the exception of a brief rehab assignment in 2022).  So he had never spent a day in AAA as a bona fide minor leaguer, until this day.  After a truly dreadful first two months of the season, the Sox decided to option him to Charlotte.  He was in the lineup batting third on this Saturday night.  And boy was it a rough AAA debut for him.  He went 0-4 with a strikeout, grounded into a double play and committed an error at first base that led to a pair of unearned runs.  Just a few days ago, the Sox traded Vaughn to Milwaukee, ending his rocky time in Chicago.  Fortunately, it wasn't all bad for the Knights on this night though.  On the flip side, once highly touted shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery probably had the best game of his professional career on this night.  He homered twice and doubled twice on a 4-4 night.  The doubles were perhaps a tad fortunate though because Round Rock centerfielder Alejandro Osuna did not take the best route on the first one and completely lost the second one in the twilight sky.  Interestingly, Osuna was promoted by the Rangers to make his MLB debut against the White Sox in Chicago the following day.  So he faced off against the Sox AAA and MLB teams in consecutive days.  Brooks Baldwin and Montgomery got Charlotte off to a quick start with back-to-back homers in the bottom of the first:  Baldwin's a bomb to center and Montgomery's was an opposite field shot to left.  Round Rock tied it up in the third on another opposite field homer, of the two run variety, by Marcus Smith off Mike Clevinger, who is still employed by the White Sox organization for reasons that remain unclear.  Smith would score the go ahead run in the fifth after reaching on the Vaughn error and scoring on a Clevinger wild pitch.  And then Smith's big night continued in the seventh with a double that knocked in another run to make it 5-3 Express.  Two batters later, Chad Wallach seemingly put the game out of reach with yet another opposite field home run, but this one was to right field and was a Charlotte special that probably would have been a routine fly out in most MLB parks.  It made the game 8-3 Round Rock.  The Knights would answer with a pair in the bottom of the seventh though.  Montgomery's second homer of the game in the bottom of the ninth, this one a pulled homer to deep right center, which cut the deficit to two.  The Knights got a couple men on after that but could not score again.  Round Rock hung on for an 8-6 win.

This was a pretty typical Charlotte game with five homers and plenty of offense, providing all sorts of entertainment.  As I mentioned above, I made it back there again on Sunday night when the Knights got revenge with a 7-4 victory.  In between was my first visit to Atrium Health Ballpark in nearby Kannapolis.

Photo Album

Next ballpark:  Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, NC