Summer swing starts
Coal Creek 18U squad opens season with weekend action
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Left-hander Tanner Hollifield tossed 70 pitches in four innings against Knoxville Ice on Sunday morning, June 1. Summer league play began on May 31. - Tony Cox
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Max Giles fields a deep ball during Coal Creek’s Sunday morning game against Knoxville Ice. - Tony Cox
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Jack Wilson piched two innings against the Knoxville Ice on Sunday. Wilson faced 13 batters and threw 29 strikes. - Tony Cox
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Coal Creek’s Jeremiah Owens catches a fly ball deep into right field during the team’s Sunday morning opener against Knoxville Ice. - Tony Cox
Summer baseball season has arrived, and the Coal Creek 18U team opened its 2025 campaign with three games over the weekend.
Coal Creek is composed largely of players from Anderson County High School, many of whom helped the Mavericks reach the state tournament this past spring.
Several of the program’s younger players took the field Saturday as Coal Creek dropped its summer opener to Tri-Star Baseball, 3-1.
Lee Goins drove in Coal Creek’s lone run on an infield groundout. The team collected three hits, with Jack Wilson, Hayden Ault and Tanner Hollifield each recording a single.
Ault got the start on the mound and went five innings, allowing one run on three hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Kris Pellicio tossed two innings of relief, surrendering two runs (one earned) on one hit with three walks and three strikeouts.
Coal Creek Coach Josh Boynton uses the summer season — including participation in a Knoxville-area league — to evaluate younger talent.
“The summer is all about my young guys,” Boynton said. “A lot of older guys are playing on travel ball teams, but we have others who don’t want to play travel ball because it’s gotten so expensive, or they’re working.
“I use the summer to get some guys some at-bats and innings. I always let them know we’ll have a jersey for them if they want to play.”
Boynton said he understands that summer brings other priorities.
“Sometimes a kid just needs to be a kid,” he said. “Maybe they want to go to the lake or spend time with family. They’re only young once, and I get that.”
Participation in Coal Creek’s summer schedule is voluntary — by design.
“If you make it mandatory, then the kids don’t want to be there,” Boynton said. “If it’s voluntary, they show up because they want to.
“We have games and practices,” he said. “We have opportunities to take groundballs, or we have opportunities to take batting practice, and we see who comes. Some days we might have 30 players, other days maybe six or seven. But they get more out of it if they want to be there.”
After losing 10 seniors from the 2025 state tournament team, Boynton is using the summer as an opportunity for younger players to step into bigger roles ahead of 2026.
“This is a chance for guys to see live pitching,” he said. “Some of them hadn’t seen live pitching since JV season ended a month ago.
“I have players exploring different roles, and we use the summer for part of our tryout process. Then we shift into weight training in the fall.”
TSSAA now allows high school teams eight on-field practices during the summer, giving coaches additional chances to evaluate talent.
The Knoxville-area summer league is organized by Fulton Coach Buzz McNish, and includes teams from North Knoxville (coached by McNish), two Maryville squads, Coal Creek and Corryton.
The River Boys, a Clinton-based team and longtime league member, is not participating this summer.
In addition to the league schedule, teams may schedule weekend games against travel ball programs. The league also hosts a postseason tournament, although the team from William Blount does not participate.
Coal Creek dropped a pair of games Sunday, falling 9-1 to Ice 18U and 8-0 to Exposure Tribe.
The team played a Monday doubleheader — two five-inning games — against the Christenberry Falcons, winning the first game 7-0 and the second 6-1.
Coal Creek will play at home against Heritage on Thursday night. The first pitch is slated for 6 p.m..
