A Day at Dominion: An inside look at the Wolves’ game-day process

This week, the Mechanicsville-Local was given access to the preparation and execution of an average DSC Wolves game day as they hosted the PDG Baseball Academy on April 15.

The moments leading up to and after the first pitch were recorded to paint a picture of the process behind the team’s day-to-day operations.

8:45 a.m.: Team Meeting

When head coach Charlie Dragum and general manager Tyler Kane enter the team meeting room, the 20 rostered players sit waiting for them. It’s not even 9 a.m., but on game day, there’s no time to waste. After a doubleheader against PDG out of Fredericksburg the day before, one which they swept 9-0 and 11-1, there’s an air of confidence about what lies ahead.

Dragum, sitting in front of the team, pulls his phone out and plays a song. TobyMac’s "Move (Keep Walking)" blares through a speaker, a projector on the screen scrolling through the lyrics. Focus on the lyrics, he tells them, and see how it applies to the game that’s three hours away.

"Move, keep walkin'/Soldier keep movin' on/And lift your head” rolls out from the Christian hip-hop vocalist.

As the team quietly observes the song, Dragum reveals the theme of the day. In the game of baseball, how does one handle the trials and tribulations of things out of your control? For a game so analytically driven in the modern age, there’s only so much mystery left in a seven-inning game of baseball. But uncontrollables, as observable as they are, still remain.

Just before the meeting breaks, Kane stands up and gets down to baseball business. The team, he says, needs to get back to its hitting basics, no more home run derby-style batting. Focus on posture, turn the barrel, and strike it.

Soon after, the players split off. Some head to their computers for schoolwork, done online through Liberty University, and others get a start on batting practice, like Brady Elrod, a Virginia Tech signee and one of eight players in the senior class, who heads to the campus' 12,000-square-foot indoor facility.

One of six seniors to have his college decision laid out, Elrod made the jump to DSC after three years at Hanover High School. To him, it was Kane and his staff that helped him get college looks at Hanover and, ultimately, find his college home at Virginia Tech.

In many ways, this has been the testing ground for a future in the ACC. He’s challenged himself to be more vocal with younger teammates, more engaged in his school/baseball balance, and more mentally equipped for a season that is significantly longer compared to a public school schedule.

"Nobody's coming here just to have a normal high school baseball season,” Elrod said. “You're trying to get to the next level."

With a schedule that requires travel to other states, featuring competition consisting of college and pro prospects, he’s learning that, for as talented a player as he is, there’s still work to be done.

"It's really just an eye-opening thing to me, learning what I need to do and get better at,” he said. “It's much more obvious than what it was in the past because you can get away with a lot of things that you're not good at, but now you're seeing 90 (miles per hour) pretty consistently."

Caden Stancil, a Class of 2027 pitcher, had a familiarity with the Dominion staff and facilities before ever joining the newly-formed academy. Playing travel ball with Dragum’s Ironbridge team since he was 13 years old, Stancil already considered the campus his baseball-playing home. Now, he was looking for a staff that could help his pitching evolve. He wanted to move faster, get stronger, and play with better tempo on the mound.

It started with a meal plan and a fitness regimen, which helped him build up 20 pounds and focus on keeping his arm fresh with a split pitch count, giving him time to rest and recover while still competing against top-tier talent.

"Everybody spoke highly of them and just being able to have those people as my coaches is something I always wanted,” Stancil said. “Once the opportunity was there, I knew I couldn't pass it up."

While the team gears up for batting practice, Dragum sits in his office. In the corner of the room stands a whiteboard with names listed all across it. While their first season in the Academy Baseball Association’s Prospect Division is in full swing, Dragum and Kane have already shaped what will be the Year 2 team. The roster number is projected to double from 20 to 40, allowing them to form a second, junior varsity-style team. It’s one of the requirements to jump up from the Prospect Division to the Premier Division, the ABA’s highest level, which requires teams to be active for two years and have that second team.

A second team provides younger players ample playing time against stiff competition, while still having the opportunity to play up on a senior squad. It’s one of the next major steps for the academy, though Dragum has no plans of extending the roster to a size that requires any more than a second squad.

"We want to be at a two-team arc, but I don't want it to be watered down," Dragum says.

10:15 a.m.: Batting Practice

On a scorching 90-degree morning, the Wolves take the field.

Jackson Millan, another Hanover Hawk to follow Kane to Dominion, slams one of his warmup shots that bounces up and over the center field fence, landing in a nearby storage facility.

After some work with the bullpen, Kane stands beside the batters warming up and reflects on a journey that led to Dominion. It’s the first coaching job outside of Hanover County in his career.

"It's weird, but it's great," Kane says.

Kane and Dragum figure to rotate three pitchers during the game, splitting between 45-50 pitches each for Liberty-bound senior Will Hodges and Stancil, as well as one inning put aside for Evan Nix, the lone graduate on the team. Nix, who had Tommy John surgery on July 21, had to put a commitment to VMI on hold while he recovered from his surgery, using his season with Dominion as a gap year. Returning to the field after eight months, his return to play has featured one inning for every series played. VMI has remained in contact with Nix during his gap year, and the expectation remains that after a season at DSC, he'll be heading there to continue playing. 

As a crowd starts to form behind home plate, there are familiar faces everywhere. Kevin Elrod, father of Brady Elrod and a baseball legend at Mechanicsville, formerly Lee-Davis High School, hits the golf driving range attached to the campus before getting to the ballpark.

Bill Graham, a friend of Dragum’s since 1988, handles PA duties, something he's done since Dragum coached at Atlee. A self-described "field rat," Graham also played a hand in the field development at Hanover High, working on field maintenance projects every year. Now, DSC's turf field leaves little for Graham to do in that department, though he and Dragum both agree that the next thing on the agenda is adding a scoreboard behind the field.

While batters finish up their practice session to leave the field for PDG to warm up, players begin to question the music blasting through the speakers. Elrod, in charge of the music, has slower country music playing. Unless he's pitching, Elrod says he prefers calmer, slower music to get in the mindset to bat. He wants to be even-keeled and in control when he’s in the box. His teammates disagree. He's told to change the music, and so he does.

12:00 p.m.: The First Pitch

So much about Dominion’s on-field structure is about experimentation. Different roles are constantly being thrown at the players.

Stancil, for instance, has always been a starting pitcher. At Dominion, he’s discovered he enjoys coming out of the bullpen.

When it comes to their first player up to bat, it’s one of the few constants held in place at Dominion.

When Nic Gaines was at Atlee, he was a skilled No. 6 on a stacked, state-qualifying Raiders squad. At Dominion, he’s been the leadoff hitter in every game he’s played, leading the team with 27 hits, all of which are singles. On his first at-bat and second pitch faced on Wednesday, he makes contact with the ball, sending it bouncing over the left-center wall and ricocheting off a tree to land back onto the field.

It’s a double for Gaines, his first of the season. It’s also an early indication that the DSC bats are going to be active for a second straight day.

DSC quickly jumps out to a 2-0 lead, with Gaines walking home and Millan scoring on a wild pitch. Dragum is confident, but not satisfied, particularly in their early hitting.

"Let's be better with our situational at-bats," he tells the team.

Christian Newsome, affectionately called "Sasquatch" and "Mountain Boy" by his teammates for his long hair and voluminous beard, heeds Dragum's message, drilling a two-run home run to center field for a 4-0 lead. A line drive single from Elrod later sends Millan and Braden Walton home to make it 6-0 entering the third inning.

During the third inning, Hodges hits his 45-pitch threshold, striking out two batters as he does it. That's it for the day for the senior pitcher, ushering in an appearance from Stancil to play the fourth. Aside from a hit batter and an error, the defense doesn't miss a beat with Stancil, getting off the field with its shutout bid still intact.

Just as the DSC offense gets set to play the bottom of the fourth, Evan Nix wonders aloud if he'll get a chance to play.

The team is four runs away from a mercy-rule finish calling it early, and with Stancil just entering the game, he’s nowhere near the 45 pitches it’d take to bring on another change.

The concern of not seeing an inning is only amplified by a three-run Mekhi Bullock home run to make it 9-0.

Soon after, Peyton Mills doubles on a line drive to send Jude Burr home, bringing it to a 10-run lead.

The coaching staff decides to make a tough decision, ending Stancil's day at 11 pitches to give Nix a chance to throw. The lefty makes quick work of the opportunity, striking out all three batters faced in 13 pitches. 

In just five innings, the Wolves made their point, sending PDG back to Fredericksburg with a three-game sweep in two days.