For many Pilots, college ties prevalent in Coastal Plain League

HAMPTON ? For most college baseball players, summer league means new places, new uniforms and new teammates. But for some Peninsula Pilots players, a familiarity with their teammates is what sets their summer-league experience apart.

With four Longwood players, four Old Dominion players, three players from Liberty, and two players each from Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth, East Carolina, Lee University (Tenn.) and Mount Olive (N.C.), more than half of the Pilots have a college teammate on the team.

The Pilots' parent organization, the Coastal Plain League, allows college players to submit an application to participate. The players submit applications to the teams they wish to play for, giving them the option to play close to home and with their college teammates.

Most of the college teammates lived together in dorm rooms at school, and some still are roommates while playing on the Peninsula.

VCU players Bill Cullen and Chris Ayers grew up playing baseball together, were roommates in their freshman year and are living together this summer as well.

"We have grown up being really good friends, but since playing together at VCU and with the Pilots, I definitely feel like we have grown a lot closer," Ayers said.

Off the field, Pilots players insist that they are just like regular college kids.

"On off days, we'll go play video games together or go to the movies together," ODU third baseman Jordan Negrini said. "We are just like any other college kids our age, we just get to play baseball all the time."

Negrini, unanimously declared the team jokester, said that he likes to keep things light and entertaining in the locker room and on road trips to provide a little comic relief to the team.

"Yes, we are all working hard and trying to get better, but it's still summertime, so I think we deserve to have a little fun," Negrini said.

While wearing the same jersey during the school year creates relationships between players, Richmond Spiders pitcher Ryan Cook said he found that players who play the same position also often have much in common.

"At school, all of the pitchers are always together in the locker rooms, in the dorms and in the bullpen," Cook said. "With the Pilots, it is pretty much the same because we aren't playing every day, so it's nice to have a group of guys you can bond with and relate to."

On the field and off, Pilots players have been able to use their relationships with their teammates to help them assimilate into summer-league culture. The familiarity of college teammates helps make the transition to summer league much smoother, Pilots coach Hank Morgan said.

"We definitely are more aware of each other's tendencies, having played together all season, so that makes it a much easier transition," ODU outfielder Connor Myers said. "The next part is learning how other people play."

Going from a college environment, where the players are together year-round, to summer league, when they have new teammates and must learn a new system, can be an interesting experience for some players, especially when they come here with a teammate, Morgan said.

"At first it is awkward meeting your teammates, because some of these guys you played against just a few weeks ago," Liberty pitcher Danny Grauer said. "But after a while, that goes away because everyone has the same goal here, and that's to get better."

Morgan added that it is common for college coaches to encourage their players to play during the summer, especially together, so that they can use their experiences playing summer ball to translate into success during the year.

Longwood coach Brian McCullough said he was thrilled that his pitchers and catcher would be working together this summer in preparation for the fall. Pitchers Aaron Myers and Brandon Vick and catcher Scott Burkett are a major part of the Lancers' team, and their chemistry will be important for the Lancers' success, he added.

"Grauer and (Jared) Lyons are from the same neck of the woods, so that brought them closer together here at Liberty," Flames coach Jim Toman said, referring to Grauer of Chesapeake and Lyons of Yorktown. "Playing together this summer will certainly make their relationship stronger, which we hope will help us next year."

Source: http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-pilots-teammates-20130704,0,5386682.story?track=rss

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