La Verne, Calif. -- The current state of the University of Lynchburg baseball team is encapsulated by a 40-foot walk Sean Pokorak took from the bullpen to the batter's box at Nobby's Ballpark in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The sophomore was in full catcher's gear, warming up pitchers and preparing to enter the game the next half inning as a defensive replacement when he was called upon to grab a bat and go pinch hit. 

So he shed his catcher's gear, even though he'd have to suit back up a few minutes later, found a helmet, grabbed his bat, and strutted, almost leisurely, to home plate.

Before Pokorak's pinch hit appearance, the Hornets were clinging to a one-run lead in the sixth inning against the seventh-ranked Spartans of Case Western Reserve. After Pokorak's at-bat, Lynchburg led by four. One of those runs came via a wild pitch, but the other two were thanks to a two-run homer down the left-field line. 

Good vibes everywhere. 

With his home run that day, Pokorak improved to 4-4 with two home runs and six RBI in his last four pinch-hit opportunities. It also helped secure Pokorak's most-outstanding-player award after Lynchburg won the weekend and advanced to the super regional for a second year in a row. 

Pokorak said that good vibes are the key to Lynchburg's success. However, with an eight-game winning streak in the playoffs including a second consecutive conference title, there may be a little more going right for the Hornets other than good vibes.

Wesley Arrington, a.k.a, The Sheriff, has been pivotal to Lynchburg's success. The 6-4 righty has thrown two complete games in the playoffs so far as Lynchburg's ace with a no-hitter. The typically stoic graduate student let out a small smirk after his no-hitter in the ODAC championship. But in his CG against Ithaca, he let out a little more emotion on several occasions, including a big roar after inducing a double-play. Then it was back to his usual, reserved self after he struck out the final batter in the win over the Bombers…but he did kind of stand motionless, stuck in his follow-through after the K to end the game, maybe trying to comprehend the fact he hasn't given up an earned run in 18 straight innings…or it was a warning to the next lineup not to mess with the Hornets when the Sheriff is in town. 

Offensively, the numbers don't jump off the page. Lynchburg hasn't scored double-digit runs in a single game during the playoffs even though the Hornets cracked 10 runs 15 times during the regular season. In fact, Lynchburg averaged more runs per game this year than it did during its national championship season in 2023. However, Lynchburg also never won more than four games in a row during the regular season…so what's the tradeoff?

First, the Hornet pitching staff, from Arrington to Colin McGuire, and every reliever and starter in between, has been pitching better than it has all year. Lynchburg had a 5.81 ERA in the regular season and boasts a 2.38 ERA in the playoffs. That's absurd to turn it on that dramatically against stiffer competition. But the offense hasn't been required to score as much in these lower-scoring affairs.  

And that's just it, the pitching Lynchburg batters are facing during the playoffs is made up entirely of good quality arms. There are no easy opponents or matchups in the playoffs. The fact that Quinn Madden is hitting .364 in the playoffs against great pitchers and seven of the regular starters are getting on base over 40% of the time speaks to Lynchburg's tenacity to grind out against better teams. 

Finally, it's funny how experience can sometimes be overstated. All year in 2023, it was so impressive to see Brandon Garcia and Benton Jones thrive in their first season of college ball and win the national championship in their freshman seasons. But by the time Jones and Garcia got to Iowa, they had played over 40 games. They weren't really freshmen at that point. 

But now, no one is talking about how Lynchburg doesn't just have a lot of good playoff experience…the Hornets won the whole thing last year. National champions. Top of the college baseball world. 

You can't discredit that type of experience, knowing how to win on the biggest stage against the best teams. Don't ignore the fact that despite being in a slump throughout the playoffs, Garcia kept grinding in his at-bats and contributing on  defense. He turned that double-play that got such a big rise out of the Sheriff. He got a base hit in the bottom of the eighth in the regional championship against the Spartans, and that may be the spark he needed at the plate to get back to his ways as an all-conference shortstop. His experience definitely helped him keep his head above water to preserve and keep going. 

The good vibes on the team probably helped as well. 

Now the good vibes have landed in Southern California. The Beach Boys, who sing "Good Vibrations," formed their band 40 miles west of La Verne, and just south of Los Angeles. 

Who knows if the Hornets are playing the avant-pop tunes of the 1960s to warm up for games. But they are playing loose and carefree in their most important and tense games of the year. 

Lynchburg takes on La Verne on Friday, May 24 at 3 p.m. EST. It's actually a rematch of the third game of the year back in 2023 for the Hornets when they won 10-2. 

The winner of the three-game super regional heads to Eastlake, Ohio (yes, pretty much back to Cleveland) to play for a national championship. 

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--LYN--