The Elkins baseball team has been guided by one motto so far this season: The Men in the Arena
“We want to block out any noise, whether its good noise, bad noise, because the guys that are on the field—those are the guys that take care of business,” said Elkins head coach Hunter Corbell. “Those guys put it all out there. They’re the guys that sweat, that bleed, that lay their bodies out on the line and do what they have to do to try to find a way to win.”
The men in the Elks’ arena have found plenty of ways to win this season.
The Elks are 20-2 so far this year--their best regular season in three years under head coach Hunter Corbell.
“It’s just the buy-in we have from our players,” Corbell said. “We don’t have a lot of me guys on the team.”
“Chemistry,” said Landon Haney, senior outfielder, about the team’s key this season. “We have a great team around here. Practices go good. Everything’s fun.”
A lot of that fun has happened in conference play.
Monday’s doubleheader sweep against Green Forest gave the Elks the 3A-1 conference crown by finishing an undefeated 12-0.
The day started with Corbell winning the 100th game of his career.
“It was a proud moment for me as a coach, but I was more proud about the undefeated conference championship,” Corbell said. “For our guys to experience that was extremely, extremely gratifying, even more so than the 100 wins.
And the day ended with junior Dizzy Dean tossing a no-hitter to complete the Elks’ first unbeaten conference run in four years.
“To do something like that was great and to do it with this group of guys was even better,” Dean said.
Now the Elks have their eyes on making it to the state final in Benton, after falling in the first round and quarterfinals the last two seasons.
“We’re extremely motivated,” Dean said. “Last year we came up short when we thought we had a chance, and that just fueled the fire for this year.”
A state title would be the school’s third ever, and first since 2009. This group knows it has what it takes to take the biggest step yet under Corbell.
“We’re kind of taking the stair step up,” Corbell said. “Our expectations, our fans expectations, our players expectations and my expectations are high and lofty. I don’t think our players, or our fans, or me would have it any other way.”