{"id":7147,"date":"2022-04-11T09:48:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T13:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T23:07:06","slug":"for-the-love-of-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/04\/11\/for-the-love-of-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of the Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

What the UMPI Baseball and Softball Teams Do to Play <\/b><\/p>\n

the <\/b>Game They Love<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAre we there yet?\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The baseball team gets ready to break the huddle before a March 15th game versus SUNY Brockport. Photo courtesy of Tim Goupille.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Baseball 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. \u201cI tried to stay up all night and I fell asleep and almost missed my trip,\u201d Nichols said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If it weren\u2019t for residence assistant Campton Tinkham, also a sophomore on the team, Nichols may have missed the bus. \u201cShoutout to Tink for waking me up and grabbing me. Also thanks, Coach, for waiting for a few minutes,\u201d Nichols said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The 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. \u201cI 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,\u201d Nichols said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The headaches of traveling from Maine to Florida you might think you could cure by flying instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The softball team would have to tell you otherwise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the first day of their trip, they drove to Gorham, Maine, to practice on the campus of the University of Southern Maine. The plan for the next day was to fly out of Manchester, New Hampshire, make a connection and land in Fort Myers. Mother Nature, however, had other plans. A huge snowstorm on the East Coast grounded the team in Maryland. \u201cIt was definitely upsetting since we were going to miss some time from our trip,\u201d first-year infielder Paige Vose said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The softball team wouldn\u2019t get to fly out until 11 the next night, making it one extremely late night–or early morning, depending on how you look at it. \u201cOverall, everyone came together well and understood that it wasn\u2019t anything we could control,\u201d Vose said. \u201cI know that some of the memories I made just on the way to Florida will be some I will never forget.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They then had to fly into Tampa International Airport, an entire two hours from their original airport in Fort Myers–where their rental cars waited for them. Because of the re-routing, the baseball team\u2019s bus driver had to make the three-hour drive from Davenport to Tampa. And then from Tampa to Fort Myers. \u201cWe got to the hotel and situated around 5 a.m.,\u201d Vose said. Despite this unholy hour, just like the baseball team, morale never wavered. The ultimate goal remained clear to the players. \u201cEveryone was very anxious to get there, and the main reason was to be able to play softball,\u201d Vose said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The UMPI softball dugout cheers on during a March 16th game versus Kenyon College- photo courtesy of Jan Vose.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Both teams went through a lot just to make it to their spring trip destinations. This raises the question of what people will do to play the game they love. During the 30 hour drive, the goal remained the same as it did for the softball team during that long layover in Maryland: play ball. \u201cOverall, I think guys were ready to play ball,\u201d Nichols said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Traveling long distances to play is nothing new if you play baseball or softball at UMPI. But for people from other places, it is much harder to comprehend. During a doubleheader against a team from Massachusetts, a bullpen catcher hollered out to the UMPI left fielder. \u201cHey left, did you guys drive here?\u201d the catcher asked. He had a look of amazement having seen the UMPI bus in the parking lot with that iconic \u201cNorth of Ordinary\u201d slogan. The UMPI left fielder nodded. \u201cNo (expletive) way!\u201d the catcher responded in awe. He then turned to his teammates in the bullpen again with a sense of disbelief at the long distance the UMPI team traveled. \u201cThey drove here\u2026they\u2019re basically from Canada!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Both teams went up against some of the best competition they will face all year. The baseball team enjoyed two wins out of the nine games they played. The softball team won one out of 10. Despite the long travel and less than ideal records, they all certainly made some memories. \u201cWe definitely grew closer as a team on that long ride,\u201d Nichols said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The air travel nightmare that the softball team endured was still worth it for the team. \u201cI would do it all again,\u201d Vose said. \u201cI think even though it was such a long few travel days, it gave us opportunities to bond with each other. Being given the opportunity to go and play in a place like Florida is definitely a blessing and something I\u2019m very grateful for,\u201d Vose said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Baseball and softball players at UMPI go to a lot of lengths to play the game they love. Playing for UMPI means practicing in a gym almost all season or arriving to practice at 5 in the morning when the thermometer reads 33 degrees below zero. It can also mean 30-hour bus rides and catching red-eye flights to the wrong airport. Despite it all, for these players from UMPI, the love for the game never dies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What the UMPI Baseball and Softball Teams Do to Play the Game They Love \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAre we there yet?\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8158,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions\/8158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}