He watched his players get tossed out of summer league games and didn't say a word, opting for silence in the stands. In some ways, this is what Mark Gjormand wanted to see. So he didn't mind if his star shortstop was ejected for arguing with an umpire. Or when his top pitcher was thrown out for a hard slide at second. Or when the trash talking flowed.

When the summer ended, Gjormand gathered his players at a local baseball field and made it clear: scrap those antics during the high school season, there's no place for them. But bring the attitude.

They have. And then some. But they'll need more of it today when they face a team playing close to home in the Group AAA state baseball semifinals.

Madison (27-0) plays Mills Godwin (21-4) of Richmond at 4 p.m. today at Shepherd Stadium in Colonial Heights. Madison's Pat Brown (9-0, 0.39 ERA) likely will be opposed by Matt Moses, Godwin's No. 2 pitcher.

Godwin won the state championship in 1999 and '87, when it defeated Marshall - and assistant coach Gjormand, in the final to cap an unbeaten season. The Eagles have reached the state tournament in eight of the past 11 seasons.

Madison is seeking its first title since 1971, but it's also shooting to become the first undefeated state champion since First Colonial in 1993. The Warhawks also have a chance to win a mythical national championship.

In the other semifinal, J.R. Tucker (18-7) plays Kellam (24-2) at 7 tonight. The winners meet in Saturday's 7 p.m. final at Shepherd Stadium.

Madison's prom is Saturday night, but the Warhawks don't plan on attending in tuxedos. They're hoping to show up in their baseball uniforms, ready to celebrate once more.

``Girls like guys in uniforms,'' said Gjormand, whose team received a pep rally at school Thursday that filled the stadium bleachers with well-wishers and classmates. ``How many guys get to go to their prom in their baseball uniforms?''

But Gjormand cautioned that the Warhawks' undefeated record guarantees them nothing other than a game today. And he knows the Eagles will provide another stern test.

Yet, Gjormand also knows that Madison has developed a toughness it lacked last season, thanks in part to this past summer. Then the Warhawks added to it this winter.

The mental toughness was displayed in Tuesday's quarterfinal when Madison rallied from a 6-5 deficit with a two-run sixth to beat Hickory, 7-6. Hickory had scored three runs in the top of the sixth, stunning the crowd. But not the players.

It was the latest the Warhawks had trailed all season. But the late deficit caused as much worry as a lone cloud on a sunny day.

``We haven't been afraid of anyone all season,'' said Madison senior pitcher J.J. Hollenbeck, who has lost one road game in his three varsity seasons, a key stat should he pitch Saturday's finale.

``This is going to be a dogfight and that's why we like it. Some teams, if they were put in that situation the other night, would pack it in and say, `This team has got our number.' It just showed the character we have on our team that we responded to their big inning.''

The summer helped as they played on a travel team for longtime coach Chuck Faris. Last year, during the high school season, Gjormand said his players compounded mistakes in certain games, partly because they lacked a mental edge. That had to change.

It did. They didn't act like thugs; they just developed a swagger, one that enabled them to beat teams with more talent - a situation they might find themselves in vs. Kellam and its six Division I players.

``They were down in Miami playing against the best 18-year-old team in the country,'' Gjormand said, ''and I saw some behavior I didn't like. But you know what? It had to be done. They got a toughness, a go-out-and-kick-people's-butt-mentality. They've shown up to play every night. That's the key. [Tuesday] night we made physical mistakes, but we were good mentally. And we overcame the physical mistakes. We didn't let it eat us up.''

They couldn't. When Madison's players huddled around Gjormand on one knee before the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday, one of them said, ``The harder we work, the harder it is to surrender.'' They all knew what it meant.

``It gives you a chip on your shoulder,'' Hollenbeck said, looking back at last summer. ``When you're as mentally tough as we are, you just go out and whatever happens, happens.''

But it wasn't just the summer. Madison's players forged ahead during the winter, too. Especially on Fridays. That's when they'd push themselves harder than they had all week in the weight room, performing what they called their megaman workout.

They'd take 60 percent of their maximum squat, put that on the bar and do 20 repetitions. After a one-minute break, they'd do another 20 reps. After that, they'd collapse.

``Guys were falling over and puking,'' Hollenbeck said. ``But when we're putting the time in on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, most kids are asleep or out partying. That has pushed us and graduated us from young men into adults.

``All that hard work will have a tremendous effect. If we do get behind, we've put the time in to where we know we have the endurance to finish it. We won't slack off in the dugout or on the bases. The little things we get done is because of our mental toughness.''

It also leads to senior right fielder Allan Wimmer playing after sitting in the trainer's room the previous day, working out a sore back. He delivered the game-winning hit. And it leads to senior second baseman Fred Haden playing despite a bad shoulder, one that altered what he could do at the plate.

``What the weightlifting got at was our relentlessness,'' said Madison senior B.T. Good, one of four football players on the roster, ``and how we didn't want to give up in a game. The weight room was all about pushing. You feel too tired, but you have to keep going.''

That mental strength is derived from 11 hearty seniors, each of whom has seemingly accepted their role on the team. For instance, senior Tyler Garner is a fill-in player.

But he scored the game-winning run Tuesday as a courtesy runner and he might need to start for Haden. Likewise, senior David McKenzie served as a courtesy runner, too. And Kevan Moniri, the No. 4 pitcher, would be a top-two pitcher on many teams. Here, he fills a role.

``I swear to God this is the most unselfish group of men I've ever been around,'' Gjormand said. ``I say men because kids couldn't handle this. Teenagers couldn't be unselfish like this. They know their roles and they play it.

``What's hard for me is that I want to coach this group for the rest of my life. These are the guys I want to hang around forever. I don't have to worry about the little things with them. I don't have to beg them to do something. The biggest thing with this group is that I can be myself with them.''

Two other starters, junior catcher Matt Foley, and junior outfielder Andrew Baird, have started for three and two years, respectively. Baird is the player Gjormand credits for setting an energized tone in workouts.

And last season, Foley played two of his worst games at the end of the season, coinciding with Madison's early departure from the Northern Region tournament.

This year, he whacked a game-tying triple in the sixth vs. Hickory.

They've shown a tender side, too, aware of their public standing. In smalltown Vienna, Madison's ballplayers are highly visible. Which is why six of them volunteered to visit 12-year-old Nicky Alonge, stricken with cancer, at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

They delivered an autographed jersey and ball, among other items. When they entered, he asked Hollenbeck, ``Are you J.J.?'' Hollenbeck and Wimmer used to walk Alonges to school.

``When his eyes lit up it was pretty special,'' Hollenbeck said. ``Just seeing that we can have that effect on a little kid is pretty cool. I thought it would be some little kid who was down in the dumps, real mad to be in there. He was all smiles, cracking jokes with us. He had a real great attitude, but it showed what pressure really is. We're just playing a game and that's all it is.''

Then Gjormand delivered what he considered the ultimate compliment, one he might not have issued a year ago.

``Nicky is a warrior,'' he said. ``He could be a Warhawk one day. He's that tough.''