More Than a Game: How Troy Treated a Visitor Like One of Its Own

Kale Twombly arrived in Troy to simply support the Little Rock baseball team at the Super Regional, yet left four days later indebted to a community that basically took him in as if one of their own.

"It was quite the weekend," Twombly said in what may be the understatement of the year.
The journey started last Thursday with a flight from Milwaukee, followed by a $90 Uber ride from the Montgomery airport to Troy. It concluded with a ride back to the capital city Sunday courtesy of a Troy University Athletics staff member.

In between, the 21-year-old native of Appleton, Wis., had the adventure of a lifetime.

"I love all sports, but especially baseball," said Twombly, who played the sport on the Div. IIl college level at Wisconsin-River Falls. "I could sit and watch it all day."

Thus, Twombly was all up for traveling to southeast Alabama to get a firsthand look at the team from Little Rock, where he will begin work as a graduate assistant in the sports communications department of the university this fall, despite never having stepped on the campus in Arkansas.

"As soon as they (Little Rock) won their regional, I was like, 'Alright, I've got to go,' because I couldn't make it to their regional (at Southern Miss)," Twombly said. "And when Troy won (at Gainesville Regional), I was like, 'I can't miss something like that.'"

Twombly purchased tickets online for the first-ever Super Regional in Troy, then booked a flight, reserved a rental car and was on his way. All went smoothly until he tried to pick up the car after landing in Montgomery.

"I had it all paid for and booked, but then I got down there and being under 25, they had certain stipulations that I needed to have that I didn't know about," Twombly said. "The place said it was just against their policy."

Not to fret, Twombly paid for an Uber ride and wasn't worried about the one-and-a-half-mile or so walk he would have to make each day from his hotel to Riddle-Pace Field for the games.
As for getting back to Montgomery, Twombly put that on the backburner.

"I knew I was going to be close enough to campus (to walk) and I really didn't think about the way back (to Montgomery)," Twombly said. "I was just going to figure it out when I got there, to be honest with you."

Arriving early and making friends
With the biggest crowd in Troy baseball history expected for the Super Regional, Twombly began his walk to the field last Friday morning and arrived outside the ballpark seven-and-a-half hours before the scheduled first pitch of 4 p.m. His general admission tickets for the best-of-three series were for the portable bleachers that had been placed beyond the outfield fence for the battle of the Trojans.

"I think I was the third person in line that morning," Twombly said.

Right behind him was Dan Green, a 1986 graduate of Troy who now resides just outside of Tampa.

"I noticed he had on an Arkansas-Little Rock shirt," Green said. "At first, I didn't notice it was Arkansas-Little Rock because the writing was kind of small and it had a Trojan (logo) on it, so I just thought he was a Troy guy, right?

"And then I realized it was Arkansas-Little Rock, and I thought that was interesting. I asked him about that, and he told me he was from Wisconsin.

"We sat beside each other for about four hours waiting for the gates to open. During that time, we talked off and on and decided we would sit together in the game."

Plenty of others engaged in conversation with Twombly throughout the day.

"I had 30 to 50 people come up to me and talk to me and introduce themselves," Twombly said. "No one assumed I was from Wisconsin, obviously, but everyone was asking how the trip was down from Little Rock. It was really cool to me to build that connection with people and be able to have more than just a small talk relationship.

"When I was out in the outfield, I thought I was going to see other (Little Rock) people, but I don't think I saw another Little Rock person the whole weekend."

Lending a helping hand
After Green learned Twombly had walked to the stadium from his hotel, he offered to give him a ride back afterward and did so following Troy's 12-2 win to open the series.

"The next day, I had offered to pick him up at his hotel, but he wanted to get in line before we would get there, because I was staying with my sister-in-law up in Auburn, so we were driving from Auburn every day," Green explained.

"So, he got there before we did on Saturday morning. We didn't even get to sit together on Saturday, but after the game we gave him a ride back to the hotel."

Troy won the second game 7-2 to sweep the series and earn a berth in the College World Series for the first time in school history. Green headed back to Auburn after dropping off Twombly at the hotel.

"I was concerned, honestly, on Saturday because I knew he didn't have a car and I asked him how he was going to get back to the airport (Sunday)." Green said. "He said he was going to take an Uber.

"I graduated from Troy 40 years ago, but I go back all the time, and Troy is still a pretty small town. I wasn't sure there were many active Uber drivers in Troy, and I wasn't sure he was going to be able to get a ride."

More travel woes
Sure enough, Twombly would find himself in a difficult situation Sunday morning after it was time to check out of the hotel.

"Once the series ended in two games, I moved all my reservations up to get back," Twombly said. "I booked an Uber and a Lyft, and I had been warned it may be tough.

"I let those (booking requests) sit a bit, and once I wasn't getting anything, I texted a few of the college kids that I met out in the outfield, then a few of the older people I had met over the weekend, and just kind of said, 'I can't find a ride. Could you, or anyone you know, find a way to get me back to the airport, please?' Obviously, I'm kind of stranded."

Among those he reached out to was Green's brother-in-law, who had been riding with him back and forth from Auburn to the games and had exchanged contacts with Twombly.

In turn, Green reached out to his cousin in Troy, Alesha Poarch.

"Sunday about lunch time I got a text message from Dan," Poarch said. "He's like, 'Hey, Kale is stuck in Troy. He can't find an Uber to take him to Montgomery. Do you know anybody who could possibly take him?'"

"So, I just put a post on Facebook asking if anybody was heading to Montgomery who maybe could help this guy out."

Poarch said within a couple of minutes, numerous people began reaching out.

Adam Prendergast, the Executive Associate Athletics Director for Communications, Creative Content and Branding for Troy University, was cleaning up Riddle-Pace Field on Sunday morning when he received a text message from his wife, Kelley, who had viewed the Facebook post.

"Dan sent me Kale's number, and I sent it to Adam's wife, Kelley," Poarch said. "The next thing I knew, Adam had already talked to him and was heading to pick him up.

"With this community, people are always willing to help out where they can, so it doesn't really surprise me that somebody stepped up to the plate that quick."

The ride back
When Prendergast drove over to give Twombly a ride, the visitor was standing in the parking lot of Bush Baptist Church with a suitcase in hand. Neither had an idea of the other's similar interest in athletics communications, a role Prendergast has held at Troy since 2012 and has worked full time in the profession since 2004.

"I got him in the car, and we started talking and he said, 'I'm going to be the athletics communications GA at Little Rock next year,'" Prendergast recalled. "And I said, 'No way.' We talked the whole way up there about his story."

It also gave Twombly a chance to pick the brain of Prendergast about the profession.

"He was awesome," Twombly said. "I asked him a lot of questions about some of his favorite things about being at Troy and some of the other schools he had been at. It was really cool to have another perspective from someone since I'm really new to the field."

Prendergast was more than happy to lend a helping hand. He also knew if he didn't, someone else would have.

"I thought it was just really neat that he said everybody at Troy just embraced him," Prendergast said. "It didn't matter that he was a Little Rock fan. They bought him food and took care of him and gave him rides back to the hotel after the games."

The Troy faithful certainly won over Twombly, and there is no doubting what team he'll be rooting for in the College World Series.

"There's no way I couldn't jump on the Troy bandwagon at this point," Twombly said.

Once arriving at the airport, Prendergast had a parting gift for his new acquaintance.

"I had an extra game ball that I had kind of stashed away from the weekend and handed it to him and sent him on his way," Prendergast said.

Yet another example of the Troy hospitality Twombly is sure to never forget.

Troy University Athletics

More Than a Game: How Troy Treated a Visitor Like One of Its Own

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