On a run-down field next to the Crest apartments, 33 Elon University students tend to a baseball diamond, getting it in shape for a few weekend games.
A mesh fence was put in here, as were lights. But this diamond looks nothing like the one across campus at Latham Park. There, varsity athletes perfect their craft as members of the Phoenix.
Here, club baseball players aren’t even allowed to use that name.
“We are the Elon Basilisks because we are not allowed to be the Phoenix,” said senior pitcher and team president Aaron Moger. “No, we’re the Big E. I don’t think we have an official name, although I do think I put that as our league registration.”
There is no mascot associated with club sports. The term Phoenix is a privilege reserved for Elon’s varsity athletes.
Welcome to the culture of club baseball, a world more akin to “The Sandlot” than “Major League.” The team plays for the love of the game, for the camaraderie between teammates — for la joie de vivre.
“I knew I wanted to play baseball at some level in college,” said freshman catcher Ben Koffel. “I went to the org fair, saw the club baseball table, signed up, obviously went out to some practices. I fit in and enjoyed my time there so I stuck with it.”
For these players, it’s a last chance to play a competitive sport before beer league softball is the last avenue of competition. That doesn’t mean the sport lacks obstacles.
During a typical varsity baseball game, Elon’s athletic department employs various coaches, groundskeepers and media relations personnel. There may be more than 100 fans to keep the umpire in check.
At club baseball games, lawn chairs act as a makeshift bench. Media credentials are neither required nor requested. The team pays a local man in his 60s a few bucks a game to serve as an umpire. On this baseball diamond, there are no groundskeepers. The players must take care of the field.
With no payroll flexibility to get the services of paid professionals, three seniors serve as coaches — students leading students into the heat of battle.
“I’m just getting sense of what (my teammates) can do and what they can improve upon,” said senior outfielder and co-coach Chase Gottwald. “There’s definitely a lot of guys that can do a bunch of little small things to really improve their game so me and Moger and John (Hendrickson), that’s what we’re trying to do every practice is getting everybody doing the small things right to win games.”
While they don't have the help of student managers, they're not completely alone when it comes to assistance with fans who essentially take on the role.
“We have ladies who like to bring us oranges and Capri Suns and Fruit by the Foot during games,” Moger said. “We might ask them to start doing a little laundry.”
The struggles have been well documented to the point of becoming viral. Moger, a broadcast journalism major, completed a 79-second promo on his team for a production class. The video acknowledged among other things that “there won’t be fans storming the field.”
But when freshman third baseman Drew Forte submitted it to ESPN.com, the promo was featured on Christmas Eve on the website’s “Page 2,” and made some of the clip’s stars household names — at least in the households of friends and family.
“My friends at home were like, ‘Dude, you’re on ESPN,’” said sophomore pitcher Brian Magna. “I was like, ‘Alright.’”
The boys of spring begin the program’s eighth regular season Feb. 25, and though nothing about it is Division I varsity athletics, the spirit of competition is as fierce as anywhere. Elon opens the season against defending national champion East Carolina University.
“East Carolina went 32-1,” Moger said. “Not to toot our own horns, but we were their one loss.”
It’s a challenge just to complete the schedule. Campus recreation provides the team with a $2,000 budget. To increase funds, Moger collects $100 in dues from each player. Even then, it’s barely enough.
“It’s brutal,” Moger said. “We want to do a lot of things. We want to try and go on spring break trips, try and play away series. Traveling is not cheap so it’s very difficult at times.”
Challenging that budget even further is the fact that Firehouse Field, the former home of Elon club baseball, has been torn down to rebuild the Senior Village. The demolition forced the team to move next to the Crest, where mud ruins baseballs and woods make them hard to find.
Further complicating play is the newly installed fence. The mesh barrier was put in about 290 feet from home plate to straight away center field, becoming a proverbial launching pad for anybody who possesses an aluminum bat.
“They put (the fence) in for a softball field,” Moger said. “So it’s much shorter than we should play with. We had a pop fly yesterday (in an exhibition game) that got out that would have been a can of corn anywhere else.”
Despite the adversities, the club baseball team will make four road trips this season, including a four-game spring break series in Tampa against Central Florida University, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University and Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The team’s main goal is to accomplish something that has eluded the program since the time of its inception: a conference championship.
Elon is the second-smallest school in the Middle Atlantic South Conference, a league they share with Wake Forest University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University.
“We start with a smaller batch originally,” Moger said. “But we still get enough talent coming through and enough talent to compete.”
There will be no grandstands full of spectators. No athletic scholarships to assist in the financial hardships a private university can bring. No television cameras interviewing players about key RBI doubles.
But they’ll be there, right outside the Crest, taking batting practice and preparing as hard as anybody to play the game they love. They’ll do it because a mesh fence sits there. Build a field and people will play.
Editor's note: A line was changed from the print edition article to clarify the meaning of a quote about the ladies that bring them oranges.