McKnight joins the Merchants after an arduous journey over the past couple years of his baseball career. The summer before his senior year (2011), he was selected to play in the Bay Area World Series (BAWS). During his senior year at Deer Valley HS in Antioch, he suffered an arm injury & did not pitch. He attended Sacramento State in 2012 & was going to give up playing baseball. However, he realized that he still loved the game & transferred to Laney JC in the fall of 2012 to try to play again.

After his injury continued to linger, he had surgery on his arm & sat out the 2013 season. He returned in 2014 and pitched for Laney as a reliever & spot starter. He finished the year 0-1 with 1 save & had an impressive ERA of 1.82 over the course of 29 innings pitched. 

McKnight pitched for the South Bay Storm in 2014. The Merchants are looking forward to having him on the staff at 100% this summer. Patrick will pitch for Cal State East Bay in the fall.