Christ School baseball players will feel history all around them when they step inside TVA Credit Union Ballpark on Wednesday night.
The park has been around since 1956 and hosted the minor-league Johnson City (Tenn.) Cardinals up until three years ago. Future All-Stars, Gold Glove winners, and Silver Sluggers passed through over the years on their way to the big leagues.
There will be a time and a place to appreciate all that, but the Greenies (1-0) should be solely focused on Unicoi County (Tenn.) when the two play at 7 p.m. It will be the first game for Christ School in exactly two weeks – Brody Raleigh ’23 hit for the cycle with six RBIs in a 22-0 blowout of visiting Mountain Heritage on March 1.
“It’s always a challenge when you have big break in any sport,” Greenies coach Wes King said.
“That being said, our guys have done a really good job of following the plan the coaching staff has given them. We’ve had good practices. Unicoi has almost all their players back from a playoff team so we’re expecting them to be really good.”
Christ School banged out 15 hits as a team in the Mountain Heritage game, led by Brody, Ethan Rose ’24 (four hits), Jonathan Reece ’25 (two), and Jakob Iwanek ’24 (two).
Charlie Collins ’24, Ethan, and Luka Rose ’25 pitched in the season opener and whoever is throwing Wednesday will be doing so off a turf mound, one of the renovations to the ballpark since it stopped hosting minor-league games.
“It’ll be a good setting and we’re expecting it to be a little on the chilly side,” Coach King said.
“The good thing is our guys are acclimated to the weather and I don’t think it will be a big deal. We’re just excited to really get officially rolling with this season.”
Following the game in Johnson City, the Greenies will play three more times this week in a tournament Thursday through Saturday at Bearden (Tenn.) in Knoxville.