High Point-Thomasville HiToms

Lore & Background

The team's name dates back to a team shared by the High Point and Thomasville communities in the Carolina League from 1954 to 1958 and again in 1968. That earlier HiToms won the Carolina League championship in 1968, then changed their name to the High Point Royals for one campaign the following year. The current HiToms are the first team in Coastal Plain League history to win the league championship three years in a row, achieving this feat in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Reader's Guide

The High Point-Thomasville HiToms represent a continuation of a baseball tradition linking two North Carolina communities. As one of the earlier teams in the Coastal Plain League, they began play in 1999 with a 21–26 record. Their significance lies in their sustained success, becoming the first CPL team to win three consecutive Petitt Cup championships from 2006 to 2008. The team has also produced alumni who reached Major League Baseball, including pitcher Todd Wellemeyer (1999), pitcher Bobby Parnell (2003), infielder Nicky Lopez (2014), and third baseman Zack Gelof. The HiToms currently compete in the West Division of the CPL and continue to play at Historic Finch Field.

Did You Know?

• The HiToms were one of the earlier teams to compete in the Coastal Plain League, starting in 1999.
• They are the first team in CPL history to win the league championship three years in a row (2006, 2007, 2008).
• The team's name dates back to a Carolina League team shared by High Point and Thomasville from 1954 to 1958 and 1968.
• Alumni include Todd Wellemeyer, Bobby Parnell, Nicky Lopez, and Zack Gelof.

Roots in the Carolina League

The HiToms carry a name that stretches back decades before the Coastal Plain League existed. In the mid-twentieth century, the communities of High Point and Thomasville joined forces to field a shared baseball club in the Carolina League, competing during the 1954 through 1958 seasons and again in 1968. That 1968 squad captured the Carolina League championship, cementing a proud shared identity between the two North Carolina towns. The following year, the franchise briefly rebranded as the High Point-Thomasville Royals for a single campaign before the name evolved into the HiToms moniker familiar today. When the Coastal Plain League launched its collegiate summer baseball competition, the HiToms were among the earliest clubs to sign on, taking the field for the first time in the 1999 season. Their debut campaign was a learning experience, as the young roster finished with a 21-win, 26-loss record. Yet from that modest start, a franchise with deep regional roots was set to build something remarkable.

The Three-Peat That Defined a League

Few feats in collegiate summer baseball carry the weight of what the HiToms accomplished in the late 2000s. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, the Thomasville-based club captured the Coastal Plain League Petitt Cup three consecutive seasons, a streak that made them the first franchise in CPL history to win the league title three years running. That kind of sustained dominance in a league where rosters change every single summer is extraordinary. The HiToms did not simply win a title and rest on their laurels; they repeated and then repeated again, proving that their organizational structure and player development could sustain excellence across multiple campaigns. Today, the club competes in the CPL's West Division, carrying with it the weight of those three Petitt Cup banners. For a small-town team playing in a summer league, that three-peat is the defining narrative of the franchise's modern era, a period when the HiToms were the standard every other CPL club measured itself against.

A Pipeline to the Majors

The HiToms may be a collegiate summer league team, but their alumni list reads like a who's-who of Major League Baseball pitching and position play. Todd Wellemeyer, a 1999 HiToms pitcher, went on to throw for five different MLB clubs over the span of 2003 to 2010, including the Chicago Cubs, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Francisco Giants. Bobby Parnell, who suited up for Thomasville in 2003, went on to pitch for the New York Mets beginning in 2008. More recently, Nicky Lopez (2014) has been with the Kansas City Royals since 2019, while third baseman Zack Gelof found his way to the Oakland Athletics. The fact that a small North Carolina summer league club has produced players who went on to wear uniforms for some of baseball's most storied franchises speaks to the quality of competition in the CPL and the developmental role the HiToms play in a player's journey from college ball to the professional ranks.

Finch Field and the Shared Identity

The HiToms call Historic Finch Field in Thomasville, North Carolina, their home, a venue that anchors the team to a specific place and a specific community. The franchise's very name reflects a partnership between two neighboring towns—High Point and Thomasville—that once shared a single baseball identity in the Carolina League. That dual-city heritage is not merely a historical footnote; it is woven into the team's branding and the way fans from both communities claim the club as their own. Playing in the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer baseball circuit, the HiToms occupy a unique niche as a summer showcase where college players come to sharpen their skills and compete at a high level. Finch Field becomes the stage where that convergence happens, and the shared identity of two North Carolina towns gives the experience a local warmth that larger-market baseball simply cannot replicate.