University of Mary Washington’s Ball Circle turned into a sea of white Thursday morning, like a flock of gulls on open water. Except for the singing and squawking of birds, the campus had fallen silent.
This was the calm before the storm: the annual ritual of setting out 5,000 folding chairs ahead of Saturday morning’s commencement. In keeping with tradition, members of UMW’s baseball team provided the muscle — and they were meticulous, ensuring straight, even rows.
While most of UMW’s some 3,800 students have headed home, the players remained. The team is bound for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2023, with a Coast 2 Coast Conference semifinal game against Regent University at 3 p.m. on Friday at UMW.
If the Eagles win, they’ll return to their home field 24 hours later with a conference championship on the line. And for 10 players, graduation will be sandwiched between it all.
For Ryan Northup, an environmental science major from Virginia Beach preparing to walk across the stage Saturday, commencement feels almost secondary. He’s got nearly a dozen family members headed to Fredericksburg to watch him graduate — and, he hopes, watch a championship game.
“They’re excited to watch me walk and watch a baseball game,” Northup said. “I couldn’t ask for much more than that.”
For student-athletes like Northup, balancing academics and athletics is a way of life: practices and games squeezed between classes and coursework, and milestone moments unfolding in between.
Saturday marks UMW’s 115th commencement, with 993 students receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees. The commencement speaker is Lou Marmo, a 1994 business administration graduate of then-Mary Washington College who has held top executive roles at several organizations throughout his career.
For the Eagles’ graduating seniors, baseball is inseparable from this chapter of their stories coming to a close this weekend.
Northup, a pitcher, chose UMW despite offers from other schools. He loved the campus; it wasn’t too close to home but not too far away, either. Mary Washington also gave him the chance to play baseball, a sport he began when he was 5 years old.
“It felt like a good place to make an impact,” he said.
UMW senior Ryan Northup is hoping to celebrate both graduation and a conference championship this weekend. (Photo courtesy of UMW Athletics)
Although Northup has been part of a team for most of his life, what he found at UMW was much more than that.
“It’s like a brotherhood,” he said. “Coming to a new school is nerve-racking. Being on the baseball team is having best friends on Day 1. These are some of the best friends I’ll ever meet.”
Matthew Caldwell, who will graduate with a degree in business administration Saturday, said being part of the Eagles is “being around 40 people who are all like-minded.”
Like Northup, baseball — and the camaraderie that came with it — became the defining part of Caldwell’s college experience. It wasn’t just the games and the practices and the times spent in the weight room. It was the bonfires and the games of hackysack in their backyards, being on the road, rolling up to a restaurant that suddenly had 40 hungry athletes to serve.
Caldwell transferred to UMW from Richard Bland College as a junior after touring the campus and meeting the baseball coaches who, he said, “didn’t beat around the bush.”
“I’m glad I came,” said Caldwell, who plans to become a firefighter. “We’re all in the same place. We’re all here together, all fighting for the same thing.”
This year’s baseball team had a unique bond, said head coach Kelly Swiney, and he credits the seniors who will graduate on Saturday. “They create that environment. They’re really close. They pull for each other. There’s not much selfishness. The results speak to that. It’s been a special year.”
Northup, who wants to work for the Florida Wildlife Commission after receiving his MBA, said college baseball has given him tools that will set him up for future success: discipline, a strong work ethic, leadership, the ability to balance an intense baseball season with academics.
For now, though, he’s focused on the weekend. “I know we deserve to be here. We’ve had a great season. I want to win.”
Although Caldwell won’t say anything that might jinx the team, he feels fully prepared. If all goes well Friday, he said, he’ll head to bed early to get some rest before the 8 a.m. commencement call time.
Then it’s back to baseball — if his mind ever really left it at all.
“I was fully prepared to skip graduation,” Caldwell said. “I’d rather play baseball.”
