What the UMPI Baseball and Softball Teams Do to Play
the Game They Love
“Are we there yet?” junior infielder Joey Blake asked jokingly as the 30-passenger bus rolled out of campus at 4 in the morning and began to head south on Route 1. The UMPI baseball team had about 30 hours of driving ahead of them. Both the baseball and the softball teams were heading to Florida for their spring trip. The baseball team would play nine games in five days in Davenport. The softball team, 10 games in five days in Fort Myers.
The baseball team gets ready to break the huddle before a March 15th game versus SUNY Brockport. Photo courtesy of Tim Goupille.
Baseball decided to drive, and Softball decided to fly. Both means of travel have their benefits and drawbacks. Some of the negative effects for the baseball team when traveling down were the early mornings. The first two days of travel, the bus was rolling at 4:05 a.m. and 3:41 a.m., respectively. On day one, sophomore infielder Kyle Nichols almost missed the bus. “I tried to stay up all night and I fell asleep and almost missed my trip,” Nichols said.
If it weren’t for residence assistant Campton Tinkham, also a sophomore on the team, Nichols may have missed the bus. “Shoutout to Tink for waking me up and grabbing me. Also thanks, Coach, for waiting for a few minutes,” Nichols said.
The long journey, mostly down Interstate 95, was broken up into 12 hours on each of the first two days. After a quick stop for batting practice in Brunswick, Georgia, the team finished the last five hours of the journey on the third day of the trip. Despite the long, boring days, team morale never wavered. “I think guys really enjoyed themselves on the bus. There was a lot of laughter and jokes happening. At one point, most of us were watching March Madness on different screens all at the same time,” Nichols said.
The headaches of traveling from Maine to Florida you might think you could cure by flying instead.
The softball team would have to tell you otherwise.
