A Cinderella Story with Quinnipiac Baseball

In my three years at Quinnipiac, I have been so lucky.

I’ve shot more games than I can count, gotten to know players, coaches and staff on a more personal level and been given endless opportunities to grow as a photographer and an individual.

One great part of what I do is being able to shoot different environments. Even if it’s just an away game a town over, being in a different place makes it new and exciting.

Traveling to cover teams is something really special because it gives you real-world experience that’s hard to get on campus. Thanks to QBSN-- the student media organization I shoot for—my resume has grown tremendously. I have gone to the MAAC Basketball tournament the past two years, seen our women’s basketball team in the NCAA Tournament at UConn and Syracuse and even got to shoot men’s basketball at Villanova.

In case you didn’t know, I’m a big Villanova basketball fan. So you can imagine how that experience went.

It’s tough pick my favorite trip thus far, but there’s one that definitely stands out.

Last May, the Quinnipiac baseball team participated in the MAAC Tournament and won. Remember this?

A conference championship means that the NCAA Tournament is slowly approaching. If you think if it’s just the team anxiously watching the selection show, you should’ve seen the student media kids on their phones waiting to hear as well.

“Quinnipiac heads to the Greenville Regional in North Carolina and will take on the ECU Pirates.”

As soon as it was announced, my phone was blowing up.

Executive board members of student media orgs were making group chats and phone calls trying to determine if we had the budget to get to the regional. It was about a four-day turnaround so the teams had to be chosen, flights had to be booked and credentials had to be sent in.

We definitely learned to work under pressure.

I was absolutely thrilled when I was asked to go and represent QBSN. I wasn’t looking forward to facing my fear of planes, but I was glad I had two fellow student media boys with me to distract from the nerves.

As someone who already wasn't looking forward to the airport adventure, things got even worse. Get ready for this disaster the morning we were set to leave for the weekend.

We were scheduled to fly out of JFK Airport at 6:29am to Charlotte, North Carolina. From there, we would board an 9:35am flight to Greenville where the tournament was taking place. Myself, along with my friends Steve and Kevin arrived around 4:45am to give us time to get settled.

As soon as I walk in and check the board, our flight gets delayed four hours.

FOUR. HOURS.

Rather than continuing to rant about my annoyance with the aiport, i'll leave it at that. Finally after hours of waiting, falling asleep and eating basically two meals, we board and my nerves start to creep up.

If there's one thing that is guaranteed to help you through something that scares you, it's support. When I was getting anxious, this is what my friend Kevin said to me:

"Liz, it's going to be fine. Just don't think about the fact that we are practically in a flying metal death trap for the next two hours."

Thanks, Kevin. Where would I be without you?

Now I may hate flying, but you can't complain about the view.

Finally we land in Greenville and make our way to the hotel to prep for the game. Quinnipiac was set to play ECU that night, but since the morning's adventure wasn't enough of a curveball (no pun intended but we're writing a baseball blog so pun intended), the game was postponed until the next day because of the rain.

Having fun yet?

After a couple hours of sleep, breakfast and a short shuttle ride to the stadium, it's finally time.

I could give you a play-by-play recap of the game, but instead i'll share some stats and let my photos do the talking.

East Carolina University was ranked No. 10 in the country, and they were expected to win out in the regional.

But here's the thing: they don't know Quinnipiac baseball like we do.

You guessed it, the Bobcats took down the Pirates.

The pure joy that erupted from the dugout was unlike anything i've seen before. No photo can encapsulate those moments.

Unfortunately, Quinnipiac would lose its next two games and the journey officially came to an end. But these guys made history and had a ton of fun along the way.

Looking back, it was such a pleasure covering this team and I can't wait to see what's next. They're never going to forget these moments, and I'm glad I can say I won't either.

I was even able to get over my fear of flying, so that's another win in the books for me.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Mark Twain