By: Sam Graham - Lynchburg men's cross country, track student-athlete
Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- If you've been following the University of Lynchburg baseball team's run through the NCAA tournament, you've probably noticed a few things.
You have probably heard about the pair of complete games thrown by Brandon Pond and Wesley Arrington.
You have probably seen the incredible relay between Avery Neaves in deep left field to Gavin Collins by way of Brandon Garcia to toss a runner out at third. And it has been nearly impossible to miss the speed of Carrson Atkins flying around center field catching fly ball after fly ball.
What you may have missed however, is the secondary show taking place behind home plate throughout Lynchburg's perfect 3-0 start in Cedar Rapids that sent the Hornets to the upcoming national championship series.
While watching Lynchburg's next game – against top-ranked Johns Hopkins on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the championship series – sneak a peek just over the shoulder of catcher Holden Fiedler, who has played every inning of the past three Lynchburg victories, and into the stands of PG Cares Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
About four rows up, you'll notice a group of young men decked out in Hornet gear who have been turning heads and making some noise (quite literally) of their own throughout the past week. The group are current Lynchburg players, whose numbers have not been called upon to suit up for action on the field at the national championship.
The NCAA only allows 25 players in the dugout at its baseball championship, leaving the remaining 20 Lynchburg players, assistant athletic director of sports performance Ed Smith, and athletic training student Sara Escobar to take up residence in the stands.
From synchronized strikeout celebrations to imaginary roller coaster rides, the group has pulled out nearly every page of the book to support their team, perhaps taking some of them back to past Friday nights spent packed into a high school football student section.
"We have a few premeditated celebrations, but we come up with most of them on the fly," said senior infielder and pitcher Josh Gjormand, who noted that his personal favorite celebration is the synchronized strikeout routine. "That makes it fun. It lets us get the creative juices flowing all week long."
If you don't know Gjormand, he was the one being bicep curled by four of his teammates during Monday's 7-1 victory over East Texas Baptist to clinch a spot in the championship series. He would likely hesitate to call himself the leader of the Lynchburg crew in the stands, but he has been a constant face in the front row of the rowdiest section at the national championship.
If that doesn't jog your memory, you will almost certainly remember a strong senior campaign on the field, recording 38 hits and 23 RBI in 119 plate appearances with a .392 batting average, while also making five starts on the mound, tossing 20.1 innings with a 4.43 ERA.
In fact, the only reason that Gjormand is not a member of the Lynchburg rotation in some capacity at this point in the season is because of a lower-leg injury suffered late this season against Bridgewater which sidelined him for most of Lynchburg's postseason run.
"It's definitely not how I planned on this season ending, especially due to an injury that was so out of my control," he said. "It's really tough not being able to put on the uniform every day and compete with my boys. It's what I love to do most."
If you were going simply based upon his reactions to a Zack Potts strike or Avery Neaves RBI, you would have no idea you were looking at an athlete sidelined in the middle of his most productive collegiate season.
"There were only really two ways to go about it," Gjormand said. "I could either sit around and feel sorry for myself or embrace my new role. I know I have a high-energy personality and my teammates feed off of that so if I can't be in the dugout or on the field with them, I can still find a way to bring positive vibes to my teammates."
Alongside his teammates, he certainly has brought nothing but positivity and support to his best friends on the field as they continue an incredible postseason run.
"It definitely helps with your confidence at the plate when you step in the box and have those guys behind you," said Atkins, deemed 'The Flash,' by director of baseball analytics Brady Moore for his propensity to catch up to deep fly balls that he likely has no business being near from a standpoint of human physics.
"The opposing pitcher definitely feels more pressure with them behind the plate having fun within the game," he continued. "It brings a lot of momentum to the team as a whole."
While the section behind home plate does not set out to impact the other team necessarily, they understand that a byproduct of their support could cause certain distractions for the opposing team.
Could you imagine stepping into the batter's box for a critical late-game at-bat with a trip to the national championship on the line while 20 guys bow down to their pitcher, Arrington just feet behind you?
"We have honestly gotten a lot of support from the NCAA officials that sit a few rows in front of us," said Gjormand. "We definitely keep them entertained throughout the game."
As one may expect, it has also resonated with fellow Lynchburg players, past and present alike.
Former player and current pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays organization – ignore the shared mascot with Lynchburg's upcoming opponent, Johns Hopkins – Grayson Thurman gave special praise to the antics, with a special shoutout for the bicep curling routine, which he deemed, "electric."
Current pitcher Zack Potts, who started Lynchburg's first game of the national championship, an 8-6 victory over Wisconsin-La Crosse which began on Friday and concluded very early Saturday morning, attributed a portion of his success directly to his teammates off the field.
"Honestly they provide the perfect amount of energy and humor for the game," he said. "When I am pitching, I take myself too seriously sometimes. So yes, I definitely find myself smirking because of the guys behind home plate. They also bring an energy that makes Iowa feel like Fox field, which is what I would attribute a lot of our success to."
That statement carries more truth than one may initially believe for a Lynchburg team that finished the regular season undefeated at home and now holds an unblemished record against the best teams that Division III has to offer on the biggest stage.
You'd be hard pressed to find a group of guys not in uniform working harder to contribute to their team's success than the one Lynchburg has. At the end of the day, it all comes down to embracing roles, something that was established very early on by the highly talented Lynchburg coaching staff.
Head coach Lucas Jones alongside a core group of assistant coaches have established a culture at Lynchburg that has turned the program around, winning two ODAC championships in the last three seasons after inheriting a program which had won just one such title in the previous 29 seasons.
Perhaps more importantly, and undoubtedly linked intrinsically, is the chemistry and brotherhood they have fostered among their players.
"Competing for a national championship is something we've all worked so hard for since we stepped foot on campus and put on the Lynchburg uniform for the first time," Gjormand said, when asked of the team's declaration following the 2022 postseason that it would compete for a national championship in 2023.
"We've all known all year that no matter the importance of the game, every single guy on our roster plays a huge role in our team's success whether they're on the field, in the dugout, or in the stands," he continued. "It's all about knowing your role on any given day and embracing it."
Nothing could symbolize that more than Gjormand's inability to put forth a unique name or moniker for the players barred from the dugout. A group which closely resembles that of the 2016 Monmouth men's basketball team bench, which gained notoriety during the NCAA tournament for its outlandish celebrations, there is no 'bench mob,' here.
Rather, just a group of friends and teammates supporting one another, knowing that those on the field would do the same if the roles were reversed.
"Our group of inactive guys don't really have a funny or special name for ourselves," Gjormand reflected on a bus ride to the Field of Dreams. "At the end of the day we're all just Lynchburg Hornet baseball players with the same goal in mind: winning the last game."
Lynchburg's own field of dreams is hoping for a few more magical moments in its final two or three games of a storybook season. Whatever the result, you can rest assured that there are 20 men behind home plate at PG Cares Field doing anything they can to make that dream a reality.
Lynchburg takes on Johns Hopkins in a best-of-three championship series beginning Wednesday, June 7. Find a link to the game using this link: https://www.lynchburgsports.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/releases/20230606mbi9un
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--LYN--
