Draft 1
UNE Baseball Uproots Franklin Pierce
By: Sydney Fye
On Sunday, October 19th, the University of New England Nor’easters’ Club Baseball team (6-4) faced off against the Franklin Pierce Ravens (0-10) in a double-header match-up at St. Louis Field in Biddeford, Maine. Following a win earlier in the day, UNE stole the show with a second consecutive win ending 14-1, which would conclude their regular season.
UNE celebrated their Senior Day on the 19th, and seniors Jason Quinn, Jacob “Soup” Suprenard, Elias Nawfel, Gabe Stoehr, and Sean Allen were honored prior to the game. This was UNE’s first Senior Day ceremony in program history, paving the way for future graduating classes to be recognized.
“I’ve put a lot of work into this team and to hear the guys acknowledge what I’ve done, it really meant a lot.” Suprenard remarked, “ We got a really good group of kids this year and I’m lucky to be a part of it.”
UNE knew going into the competition that they would not play the game with their entire team, as Franklin Pierce was short three players and would need to pawn a few Nor’easters. Suprenard, Nawfel, and junior Mike Francis found themselves becoming temporary Ravens and competed against their teammates.
“Going into this game I knew that my players just wanted to play, so when I received an email last night around 12:35 saying that the Ravens were unable to attend, I offered to give some players to them. They said that would be perfect and luckily, we made things happen so we could play today,” Suprenard shared.
UNE absolutely dominated in the first inning, not allowing a single run for the Ravens. In the bottom of the first, the Nor’easters racked up a whopping nine runs to secure a hefty lead. The Franklin Pierce pitcher walked six of the Nor’easters, and ultimately had to switch out as the difference in score began to grow.
Though the competition wasn’t super high at first, the Nor’easters were just happy to play ball. “Overall it was a great day for baseball, and I enjoyed getting the opportunity to play baseball in whatever capacity I could,” said senior Nawfel. Nawfel, playing as a Raven for the day, ended UNE’s seemingly unending scoring run with an intense diving catch in left field, finally allowing Franklin Pierce to see the second inning.
“The diving play in left field was pretty exciting because I got to do it against my teammates and we had a bit of friendly competition against each other,” Nawfel said.
UNE freshman pitcher, Evan Miller, began to heat up at the top of the second, and would finish with two strikeouts out of three attempts for the inning.
UNE got fired up at the plate in the second and third inning. With a new pitcher throwing at them, the boys got a chance to contact the ball. Sophomore, Brady Dillion, sent a bomb to right field, earning a triple and two RBI’s. Though a faster inning, the Nor’easters were making moves left and right.
“It was a beautiful day. We got to help a couple guys play baseball and it was really stress-free because at the end of the day we knew we were going to win,” Suprenard said.
At the top of the 4th and last inning, Franklin Pierce earned their only run of the game. This, of course, was not enough to require finishing the inning and the game concluded shortly after.
UNE and Franklin Pierce have not competed against each other since 2022, but even then the Nor’easters held significant wins against the Ravens.
With the regular season coming to an end, UNE is finished for the fall, and will not be eligible for the New England Club Baseball Association playoffs.
Draft 2
UNE Baseball Uproots Franklin Pierce
By Sydney Fye
On Sunday, October 19th, the University of New England Nor’Easters’ Club Baseball team (6-4) faced off against the Franklin Pierce University Ravens (0-10) in a double-header match-up at St. Louis Field in Biddeford, Maine. Following a win earlier in the day, UNE stole the show with a second consecutive win ending 14-1, which would conclude their regular season.
UNE celebrated their Senior Day on the 19th, and seniors Jason Quinn, Jacob “Soup” Suprenard, Elias Nawfel, Gabe Stoehr, and Sean Allen were honored prior to the game. This was UNE’s first Senior Day ceremony in program history, paving the way for future graduating classes to be recognized.
“I’ve put a lot of work into this team and to hear the guys acknowledge what I’ve done, it really meant a lot.” Suprenard remarked, “ We got a really good group of kids this year and I’m lucky to be a part of it.”
UNE knew going into the competition that they would not play the game with their entire team, as Franklin Pierce was short three players and would need to pawn a few Nor’Easters.
“Going into this game I knew that my players just wanted to play, so when I received an email last night around 12:35 saying that the Ravens were unable to attend, I offered to give some players to them,” Suprenard shared. Suprenard, Nawfel, and junior Mike Francis found themselves becoming temporary Ravens and competed against their teammates.
UNE absolutely dominated in the first inning, not allowing a single run for the Ravens. In the bottom of the first, the Nor’Easters racked up a whopping nine runs to secure a hefty lead. The Franklin Pierce pitcher walked six of the Nor’Easters, and ultimately had to switch out as the difference in score began to grow.
“It was a great day for baseball, and I enjoyed getting the opportunity to play baseball in whatever capacity I could,” said senior Nawfel.
Nawfel, playing as a Raven for the day, ended UNE’s seemingly unending scoring run with an intense diving catch in left field, finally allowing Franklin Pierce to see the second inning.
“The diving play in left field was pretty exciting because I got to do it against my teammates and we had a bit of friendly competition against each other,” Nawfel said.
UNE freshman pitcher, Evan Miller, began to heat up at the top of the second, and would finish with two strikeouts out of three attempts for the inning.
UNE got fired up at the plate in the second and third inning. With a new pitcher throwing at them, the Nor’Easters got a chance to contact the ball. Sophomore, Brady Dillion, sent a bomb to right field, earning a triple and two RBI’s. Though a faster inning, UNE was making moves left and right.
At the top of the 4th and last inning, Franklin Pierce earned their only run of the game.
“I’m happy we were able to take the wins for both games, I feel if we somehow lost it wouldn’t have looked very good even when we gave them three players. Overall both teams were able to play and have some fun so it worked out in the end,” Quinn said.
UNE and Franklin Pierce have not competed against each other since 2022, but even then the Nor’Easters held significant wins against the Ravens.
With the regular season coming to an end, UNE is finished for the fall, and will not be eligible for the New England Club Baseball Association playoffs.
Reflection
In my opinion, the entirety of the project went really well for me. I was lucky that the game I was assigned ended up having a pretty interesting story to tell, and it made it really easy for me to share about such an interesting event. During my workshop, there weren’t any major things I had to change, which gives me the sense that my first draft was pretty solid. I really enjoyed this project for the most part because it kept me very engaged and involved the entire time. I do have to say that I was surprised with how stressful it was to get quotes from people on the team. Seeing the players going to talk with their families and friends, it felt like I would be majorly interrupting by asking questions. This wasn’t even something I considered when going into this project, so it definitely took me be surprise.
I think my biggest improvement definitely could have been the way I took notes on the game. My notes were very scattered and messy since the game moved so fast, that I had to spend a lot of time sorting out my own writing before creating my gamer. There is definitely a much more efficient way to take notes, and prevent myself from wasting time interpreting my own words.
