Holly Springs Salamanders

Lore & Background

The Holly Springs Salamanders began play in the Coastal Plain League, finishing their inaugural campaign with a 28-28 record and advancing to the playoffs, where they lost to the eventual Petitt Cup Champions Edenton Steamers in the Divisional Round. The team failed to make the playoffs in 2016 (22-32 record) and 2017 (26-30 record).

In July 2017, Ting Stadium hosted the 19th annual Coastal Plain League All-Star Game, with a crowd of 2,038 watching the East All-Stars defeat the West All-Stars 2-1; the game was broadcast via a partnership with 7 Communications and MLB.com. Capitol Broadcasting Company purchased the team in November 2017.

Reader's Guide

The Holly Springs Salamanders represent a collegiate summer baseball team within the Coastal Plain League, a league that provides amateur players with competitive experience. Their significance lies in their role as a developmental platform for college athletes, with several former players selected in the MLB Draft. The team's ownership by Capitol Broadcasting Company, which also owns the Durham Bulls and WRAL-TV, connects them to a broader media and sports network. The Salamanders' hosting of the 2017 Coastal Plain League All-Star Game at Ting Stadium, broadcast nationally, highlights their community and league involvement. A landmark moment occurred in 2025 when Alexia Jorge became the first woman to play in the league, breaking a gender barrier in collegiate summer baseball. The team's history includes early playoff success in their inaugural season, followed by two seasons without playoff berths. Their legacy includes contributing to the Coastal Plain League's visibility and inclusivity.

Did You Know?

• The Holly Springs Salamanders signed their first player, OF Tyler Powell, in 2014.
• The 19th annual Coastal Plain League All-Star Game was held at Ting Stadium on July 9–10, 2017, with a crowd of 2,038.

A Historic Catch in Holly Springs

On May 24, 2025, the Holly Springs Salamanders found themselves at the center of a landmark moment in collegiate summer baseball. That day, Alexia Jorge stepped into the catcher's role, making her the first woman ever to take the field in the Coastal Plain League. Her appearance was not a symbolic gesture or a one-off novelty; it was a genuine competitive role within the league's regular structure. The CPL is a wood-bat circuit built around college players recruited from across the entire United States, and Jorge's participation meant she was competing alongside those players in the same framework that has defined the league since 1997. For a franchise in Holly Springs, hosting that first-ever appearance elevated the Salamanders into the broader narrative of the sport's evolution. The moment also connected the team to a league whose name traces back to a Class D circuit that operated in the region from 1937 to 1952, lending the milestone a deep historical resonance. In a single afternoon, the Salamanders went from being one of fifteen CPL clubs to being part of a first in the league's nearly three-decade history.

Born from a Father's Long Commute

The Coastal Plain League did not emerge from a corporate boardroom strategy session. Its origin story belongs to Pete Bock, an experienced sports executive who in the early 1990s found himself making long drives to the Valley Baseball League in Virginia simply to watch his son Jeff play summer baseball. The distance and the repetition of those trips planted a seed: why should a quality collegiate summer competition have to be hours away? Bock wanted a league closer to home, one where college players from across the country could gather for a summer of wood-bat baseball. He acted on that impulse, and the CPL opened its doors for the 1997 season with six founding teams. The league's name was a deliberate nod to the past, honoring a Class D circuit that had operated in the region from 1937 through 1952. For the Holly Springs Salamanders, being part of a league born from one father's frustration with a long road trip adds a personal, human dimension to what is otherwise a structured competitive circuit.

From Six to Fifteen: A Four-State Footprint

When the CPL launched in 1997, it was a compact operation with just six teams. Over the following decades, the league steadily broadened its geographic reach, adding clubs in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. The most recent expansion arrived in 2024 with the Greenville Yard Gnomes, pushing the total to fifteen franchises. That growth transformed the CPL from a small regional circuit into a multi-state collegiate summer baseball network, all built on the wood-bat format and the recruitment of college players from throughout the United States. For a team like the Holly Springs Salamanders, this expansion means a deeper talent pool, more competitive scheduling, and a league identity that spans four states. The journey from six to fifteen also brought churn: former clubs such as the Wilson Tobs, who played from 1997 through 2025 before relocating to Smithfield for 2027, and the Savannah Bananas, who departed in 2022 to focus on their professional exhibition operation, illustrate that the league's roster of teams is as dynamic as its player base.

New Ownership and a Layered Identity

In 2022, Capitol Broadcasting Company acquired the Coastal Plain League, marking a significant shift in the organization's corporate stewardship. The purchase placed the league under a media and broadcasting umbrella, potentially reshaping how the fifteen-team circuit is marketed, produced, and experienced by fans across its four-state footprint. This ownership change arrived at a moment when the league had already established itself as a durable institution, having operated continuously since its 1997 inception. The identity of the CPL is layered: it carries the name of a Class D league that ran from 1937 to 1952, it was founded by a father who wanted his son's summer baseball to be closer to home, and it has grown from six teams to fifteen. For the Holly Springs Salamanders, these threads of history, growth, and new corporate direction all converge in the very season that produced the league's first female player. The team sits at the intersection of the CPL's past, its present, and the changes still unfolding.