BY JESSE SMITHEY
Matt Buckner, the Farragut High School baseball coach from 2010-2024, saw the promise in Eli Evans roughly a decade ago.
As Buckner’s son, Lukas, played his way through the youth leagues in Knoxville, Matt Buckner recalls the chance sightings of Evans at the plate.
“For me, he’s always been good. I just remember him when he was young, really young. He was 8 years old and was the first one hitting home runs,” Buckner said. “Had a feeling he was going to be pretty exceptional from the very beginning.
“You could just tell he was a pretty rare breed.”
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And that came to pass.
Evans had a season for the ages as a senior at Farragut High School, as he and a deep group of college-bound talents from the Class of 2024 led the Admirals to their third consecutive Class 4A state championship.
He hit .484 against a schedule chock full of nationally ranked and state-ranked teams. That batting average was the best on Farragut’s team by .042 points, and the ETSU signee also led Farragut in doubles (16), home runs (13), RBIs (67), walks (42) and on-base percentage (.602).
For his efforts, Evans added 5Star Preps 2024 Offensive Player of the Year honors to his seemingly ever-growing list of accolades from his final year of prep baseball — which has included everything from Perfect Game All-American to MaxPreps State Player of the Year to Max Preps All-American.
Farragut finished the season 40-5 without a loss to an in-state team.
The Admirals won their final 23 games of the 2024 campaign, and Evans didn’t disappoint at the state tournament. He went 7 for 13 with two home runs, two doubles, two walks and five RBIs in the four-game span. That included a 3-for-3 performance at the plate in the title game win over Nolensville, and Evans made an unreal put-out from his spot at third base for the final out of the 3-1 victory.
“I feel more than satisfied,” Evans said of his high school career. “I’ve been with those guys for forever. Just to play one last time (in 2024), after having already played three years together in high school, and to have all the outcomes we’ve had, it’s been nothing short of amazing.”
THE CAREER ARC
Evans went 2 for 3 with three RBIs in his first-ever state tournament game as a freshman in 2021, doing so as a leadoff hitter in that opening-round, 8-0 win over McMinn County.
A day later, he pitched four-hit baseball over six innings, striking out six and walking just three in an elimination-game win.
“He won a state tournament game as a freshman. A lot of people don’t remember that,” Buckner said.
“He was like 85 (miles per hour) as a freshman. He hasn’t pitched an inning since then, because we didn’t need him to. But he could have. Just really good baseball player, man. There’s really nothing in the game that he’s not good at.”
He hit .371 in the 2022 postseason with 11 RBIs in 10 games and earned a 2022 All-5Star Preps Team selection.
But as he got deeper into his high school years and devoted more intent into his craft, diet, hitting routines and workouts, Evans transformed into the legit college baseball prospect.
“Maturity and work ethic. He works hard on his craft. He’s a guy who spends a lot of time in the cage,” Buckner said. “A lot on his swing. He’s naturally talented, but what happened this year isn’t natural — it takes a lot of work.
“He put it in. He put the work in. He got himself in tremendous shape. If you look at the pictures of him as a freshman to the time he was a senior, he went through a huge physical transformation. He became what everybody wanted him to become. But not everyone puts the effort into becoming that, and he did.”
INSIDE HIS HEAD
A shift of mindset also took Evans from really good to great.
As a junior in 2023, he earned a spot on the All-5Star Preps postseason teams after helping the Admirals repeat as Class 4A state champions and hitting .390 with five homers, nine doubles and 36 RBIs.
But Evans hoisted his game to a new level in 2024, despite the more demanding schedule.
He told 5Star Preps at the 2024 TSSAA state tournament that a great deal of his success in the spring was attributable to working with a mental coach. He had altered his thought patterns, especially when it came to processing negative encounters at the plate.
He doubled down on that take in June, again championing some of the work he put into the mental game for leading to his career-best season.
“I had way too many strikeouts (in 2023). I wasn’t as competitive in the box as I was this year,” he said. “I think a big part of that this year was my mental game. (In the past) after I saw a bad pitch and it was called for a strike, I would let it linger. It would cause me to not do as well as I could have done.”
Changing his internal talk during at-bats didn’t come easy.
He had to practice it first while he was in the batting cages in the offseason and then as he got into team practices.
It took months to take hold.
Evans noticed the changes paying off roughly a quarter of the way through the season.
But, by no means, does he now consider himself a finished product. Continuing to mature mentally, physically and emotionally with the game is high on his agenda as he makes the journey into college athletics. Farragut players from previous graduating classes have given him advice on what that will be like.
Evans reports to ETSU in mid-August.
“I just have to trust the process. Give it time. And get out there and prove myself in the fall,” he said. “They all say it’s a grind between school and baseball. There’s going to be a lot of time management. Living on your own, you’re going to have to take on more responsibilities. You’re going to have to do things by yourself.
“I think that’s just another part of maturing.”