More than 24 hours had elapsed by the time Brandon Pond and his teammates exited buses outside Turner Gymnasium on Friday night. Still, in 1,500-plus minutes, Pond hadn’t formed thoughts he found adequate enough to describe what his team had just accomplished.
“Goosebumps is all I can say,” the Lynchburg graduate student pitcher said.
Zack Potts took a shot.
Happiness, the senior hurler explained, reigned in the immediate aftermath of his team’s showing Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“Everyone I look at,” he recalled, thinking back to the moment he and the rest of the University of Lynchburg baseball team converged on the diamond for a dogpile, “I’m just ecstatic, because we did it.”
The Hornets accomplished something no other team in program history — something no other Old Dominion Athletic Conference squad, something no other team in the commonwealth — has been able to do: capture an NCAA Division III championship.
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They’ve written their names in the history books. Risen to the top of the Division III baseball world.
They did “it.”
The simplest of descriptions for so monumental a moment. Perhaps because Potts, as he soaked in the atmosphere Friday night at UL, where hundreds of supporters gathered for their homecoming and ringing of the campus victory bell, couldn’t possibly mention everything else “it” encompassed.
On paper alone, the list is pretty long.
Consider some of the numbers in their run to the national title.
Among 386 Division III schools, Lynchburg finished first or tied for first in four statistical categories as a team for the season: walks drawn, double plays, ERA and wins.
The last of those, 48, is both a program and ODAC record by wide margins.
Previously, Avery Neaves owned the school’s top mark for games played in a season at 51. He and Carrson Atkins now sit atop the leaderboard for the category with 56, after the two appeared in every contest for the Hornets this year. Gavin Collins (55) and Jackson Harding (54) both eclipsed the previous mark, too.
Along the way, the Hornets checked off multiple goals they’d set for themselves, securing a 10th ODAC title, winning an NCAA regional to begin their 11th appearance (by which they flipped an 11-19 record all-time in NCAA play to 21-21), and coming out on top of a super regional for the first time in program history — to set up their NCAA Division III championship debut.
And there, of course, they went on a tear, getting three consecutive complete games from three pitchers (Potts, Pond and Wesley Arrington) as part of a 4-0 start in Iowa to reach the title series, where they took two of three from top-ranked and top-seeded Johns Hopkins to claim the crown as the tourney’s No. 3 seed.
All those achievements were part of the “it” Potts referred to Friday. But there’s more, too.
For the program, these players brought home a trophy that will serve as a tangible symbol of optimism for next season’s group and each of the ensuing teams. As motivation when workouts are difficult, when cold prevails in the offseason and early parts of the regular season, before sunny skies and warm temperatures take over.
“You can see that it’s possible,” Potts said, explaining that others who will don the uniform now have even more reason to believe.
For the community, this year’s team and its postseason run to the championship infused excitement, evidence of which can be found on social media, where Lynchburgers poured on congratulations after each win. Or in the hundreds of texts and messages players and coaches received after hoisting the trophy. Or the police and fire escort the team got as it returned to the city.
“They blocked probably 20 lights the whole way here,” said Holden Fiedler, a grad student and the Hornets’ starting catcher.
More evidence showed up on the faces of those who turned out to UL on Friday, well after classes had wrapped and commencement had concluded. Many of those supporters, as they held up phones that glowed through darkening skies to record the celebration, failed to keep tears from escaping down their cheeks.
“It’s this huge family of all the fans, and even that’s been able to bring in some other people from the community that can kind of see how much love we have for each other,” Potts said.
And for those players, doing “it,” meant proving to the rest of Division III that all the effort they’d put in in the offseason, regular season and postseason would pay off.
“Hard work, long hours and belief,” Fiedler said when asked what it took for the Hornets to earn the right to belt out “We are the Champions” during their trek back to Lynchburg. “Belief in the team, belief in each other and belief in the fact that this something we can accomplish. This is something attainable. … It’s not something out of reach.”
From the start, the entire group was on board.
Before team workouts officially began ahead of the season, players were in the weight room on their own, Ben Jones, a freshman, explained during Thursday’s postgame press conference.
As practices and games got underway, that commitment never faded.
“Nothing more I could’ve given this team,” said Fiedler, who put his body on the line behind the plate in 51 games this year (181 for his career).
That was the case for others, too. Like Pond, who came all the way back from a season-ending torn labrum in his throwing shoulder (and surgery) a year ago to go the distance in the NCAA championship tourney.
“This is the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” Pond said, “and it’s just amazing to be here and come back here for a fifth year and go out this way.”
That story and that complete game, along with the other two, and multiple other big moments during this history-making season are ones coach Lucas Jones said he’ll hold on to indefinitely.
But days, months and years from now, Jones explained, other pieces of this campaign and this run to the title will remain, too.
“I’ll remember prayer, I’ll remember calm, I’ll remember peace,” said the man who led his alma mater to the crown just six years after taking the helm. “I’ll remember the performances for sure. … I’ll remember Jackson’s big hit. I’ll remember that. But I’ll remember that because of the people they are.”
The people who did “it." Who energized a community, and who will serve as motivation for future generations. Who believed, and then committed to getting the job done — and did just that.