Christian Moore has experienced plenty of firsts since helping Tennessee win a College World Series last June.

His professional debut, first home run and first walk-off homer are among the highlights that the former All-American accomplished during his minor league debut last season.

Moore is set to cross off one of his final “firsts” as a professional baseball player as he takes the field for Rocket City in his first Opening Day on Friday. First pitch for the matchup against the Chattanooga Lookouts is set for 6:35 p.m. at Toyota Field.

“You look at what he was able to do a year ago, and you think about the rhythm of his year,” manager Andy Schatzley said. “It started in January with practices in Tennessee, how much energy and emotion goes into a college season, much less winning a national championship. 

“You win a national championship, you’re drafted, you come straight to Double-A, it’s a lot; it was a lot on him physically, it was a lot on him emotionally and he handled it all great.”

Moore burst onto the scene with the Trash Pandas in his 23 games played in Madison, batting .322 and posting a .911 OPS while totaling five home runs and 14 RBIs.

He also claimed Southern League Player of the Week after just one series in Rocket City after hitting 11-for-20 with four home runs and six RBIs in an August series against the Birmingham Barons. He became the fastest Trash Pandas player to earn a league honor after making his debut.

The former Tennessee star described playing in his first Opening Day at the pro level as a “dream come true.”

“It’s been a lot easier,” Moore said of returning to camp. “This transition, coming back here to Alabama, understanding what I had to do last year to be in this position, it’s been awesome. I feel a lot more comfortable, I know where everything is. I don’t have to ask thousands of questions like I did last year, in the middle of the season. It’s been fun.”

With goals of making the major league roster this season in the Los Angeles Angels organization, Moore comes into Opening Day with improvements to his defense in the infield.

“I know I hit on that during spring training,” he said. “I want to tune in on that this offseason, understand that’s going to be a big thing for me to get to the big leagues and to stay again. I said in spring training, the bat’s going to go up and down, but the defense has to be consistent. Hopefully, fans and you guys can see that the defense has been better.”

Familiarity also gives Moore confidence with much of the infield in Madison, which includes familiar faces to both him and Rocket City in Denzer Guzman, Cole Fontenelle and Sam Brown.

“We talked a lot this offseason, he actually knows one of the first basemen in Tennessee that I played ball with,” Moore said of Brown. “It’s all a big connection, and you can tell we’re clicking really well right now.”

The Trash Pandas’ opening day also has a handful of players who had stints with MLB teams, including infielder Evan White, who won a Gold Glove in 2020 with the Seattle Mariners.

He expects being around players who have experience at all levels of the game will help him as he looks to make the big league roster this season.

“It helps me when you’re around older guys who’ve been here and guys who, like you said, have won a Gold Glove, have been in the league, understands it takes consistency every single day,” Moore said. 

“For me, a younger guy, or a guy that just got in the league, and for young guys on this team it means a lot to have that knowledge because when you go up there, or when you’re in spring training, you see how those guys handle things and you want to do the same thing.”