Four bus rides, two boat trips, a few games of Mafia, a karaoke performance and a gem of a baseball victory later, a tired group of Mystic Schooners players and staff exit their team bus at Dodd Stadium in Norwich early Tuesday morning of this week.

Their long, successful and smooth road trip to Martha’s Vineyard started 13 hours and 10 minutes earlier from the same spot.

At 1:20 a.m., they head to their cars and go home for some well-deserved sleep. It is time to rest up for their next New England Collegiate Baseball League game that will come that evening at Ocean State in Wakefield, Rhode Island.

Welcome to life playing summer baseball, where one game melts into another during the 44-game regular season that begins on June 7 and ends July 30.

It’s also a life that these college-aged players will fondly reminisce about years later.

This particular Monday game is Mystic’s third and final road trip to play the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks.

“The first time, it’s a lot of fun,” says Reid Easterly, who pitches for Yale and is from Katy, Texas. “After that, the travel gets tough. It’s still a cool experience.”

About 28 players, even some that won’t play that night, make the popular trip. The majority have never been to Martha’s Vineyard prior to playing for Mystic.

“Some guys like to go for the ride even if they’re hurting,” says Dennis Long, the team’s owner/general manager/pitching coach. “The experience of being together is big for these guys. The guys like it. It’s a good day. It’s summer time. Last year, we weren’t used to the whole thing and we didn’t win.

“Now we get to the (ferry) dock early. It gets us calibrated for the game. Sometimes the ride home — we take, like, a fishing boat — can get choppy and be bumpy. A couple of them have been interesting.”

Manager Phil Orbe and Long have figured out a way to make the trip enjoyable for the players but still be sharp come game time, which on Monday is seven hours after they leave Norwich.

One trip, they arrived super early to allow time to check out the island and go swimming. While the ferry is free, transportation costs (bus, boat ride back) are about $3,250 each time.

“We try to use it to our advantage,” Orbe says. “The kids actually get to stay together for a long period of time and it builds camaraderie. They usually play a little looser here because they’ve been with each other for such a long period of time.

“Some of my favorite stuff is these longer trips. You get to know the kids a little bit better. At home, we punch in and punch out and go our separate ways. The trips are very beneficial, particularly with building relationships.”

Search for the Mafia

Shortly after noon, the road trip starts off with the bus turning around even before leaving the Dodd Stadium parking lot.

Orbe has forgotten his fungo bat.

He leaves the bus and takes off for the locker room. He returns with his prized possession. The 10-year-old fungo bat will stay by his side for the remainder of the trip.

Players settle into seats. Some listen to music, others begin to play Mafia, a well-known road trip game in the college baseball ranks, in the back of the bus. Kevin Ferrer, a Stonington High graduate, takes the lead.

Jacob Irons, a Plainfield graduate and the team’s assistant Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations, says there’s a lot of strategy involved in a game that is difficult to describe. Basically, participants are trying to figure out which players are in the mafia.

Not everyone plays Mafia during the trip. Easterly studies for a physics exam that he has to take the next day. Later, the shutdown reliever will play a pivotal role in Mystic’s 3-1 victory by coming out of the bullpen and throwing a scoreless seventh and eighth inning.

Sitting in the front two seats, Orbe and Long talk baseball. The veteran coaches are the glue that holds Mystic together and the reason the Schooners are one of the most successful franchises in the NECBL.

They’ve mastered the art of letting their players be themselves while offering valuable advice, aiding in their development and providing a terrific summer experience. They recruit high-character players, so there are usually few issues during the season.

“They’ll be better when they leave here,” Long says. “Overall, it’s enjoyable to watch them.”

Traffic is light, so the bus arrives at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where the ferry will leave, about 75 minutes before departure for the island. Players scatter to their favorite lunch places — a bunch heading to the local taco spot and some to a nearby cafe.

John Leuzzi, the team’s Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations, makes sure to pick up an ice tea and oatmeal cookie, which is roughly the size of manhole cover, for Long. Leuzzi and Irons, who attend Marquette and Notre Dame, respectively, are there just about every step of the season with the Schooners.

This team is a particularly close group despite the fact they come from all over the place, including Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as a number of players from Connecticut. They share a common goal of hoping to play in the major leagues someday.

Ken Turner, a Ledyard graduate and Bryant University pitcher, joined the team a few weeks ago. He’s struck by the welcome he’s received.

“Everyone on the team is super close,” says Turner, who pitches a scoreless inning in relief later that night. “I feel like I can talk to anyone. It’s a really good group of guys.”

Turner and his teammates board the 3:45 p.m. ferry to Vineyard Haven and head to the top deck for some sun on a near perfect summer day.

Orbe cracks a George Costanza line from a Seinfeld episode: “The sea was angry that day, my friends.” (No truth to the rumor that Orbe once wanted to be a marine biologist.)

Troy McGirt, an infielder from Wake Forest, and George Washington pitcher Connor Harris grab the karaoke microphone that Long brought along and start singing. Their rocky rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Thinking out Loud scares away every seagull within a mile.

Nearby, Tristan McAlister, an outfielder from Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland, stands and swings a bat. From Fredericksburg, Virginia, he talks about being away from home this summer.

“I think it’s a sacrifice being away from family and I miss out on a vacation,” McAlister says. “I can’t play the game forever. I think Mystic is one of the best places to be for (summer baseball). … It’s been a great experience.”

After the ferry pulls into Vineyard Haven, the Schooners board a white school bus for the 15-minute trip through narrow and crowded streets to Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School where the Sharks play. They call their home field the Shark Tank. Dugouts and the press box are painted mostly purple.

It is 4:50 p.m., still over two hours before the first pitch, and there’s a little problem to solve before batting practice begins.

Opposing teams are required to bring their own batting practice balls and Mystic’s stock is in short supply.

Orbe walks down to the bullpen and discovers that Bowen Baker, who’s from North Stonington and pitches for Fairfield, has a bag full of baseballs. Thirty in all.

Baker collects baseballs during the course of the season.

“I adopt good baseballs,” Bowen explains.

His adopted baseballs restock Mystic’s supply.

After batting practice, a few Schooners head over to the batting cage behind the Sharks dugout to take extra swings. Joe Jaconski, who plays for North Carolina, is among the group.

“I started off hot but then struggled badly,” says Jaconski, waiting his turn. “I’m getting there.”

Extra work pays off for Jaconski, who ends up with two of Mystic’s five hits against Martha’s Vineyard.

Sunflower seeds and seagulls

Monday’s game is important to the NECBL playoff race. Entering action, Mystic is in second place in the Coastal Division and Martha’s Vineyard is close behind in third. One of the tiebreakers involves head-to-head results and the Schooners won two of the first three meetings in the six-game season series.

Mystic is riding a sizzling hot streak, winning eight of its last 10 games prior to Monday.

Once the game begins, Mystic seizes a 1-0 lead in the first inning, taking advantage of Anthony Donofrio’s lead-off hustle double and Ferrer’s infield single and an error. Ferrer is the league’s hottest hitter, batting .635 over the previous five games.

Conversation flows in the dugout. Players ask teammates about what the opposing pitcher is throwing.

Other baseball-related topics are covered, like the different flavors of sunflower seeds and best post-game meals at NECBL ballparks.

After a Martha’s Vineyard batter, with two men on base, hits a line drive that barely goes foul, Orbe says to a couple players near him, what if the ball hit a seagull?

Answers are tossed around.

“Depends where the seagull is,” Orbe says.

Matthew Nunan, the starting pitcher from Boston College, escapes the jam and eventually earns the win.

The dugout is also where you learn the value of a baseball and a broken bat.

McAlister is in negotiations with a couple kids hanging out near the Mystic dugout. The young fans ask for baseballs and broken bats.

His first trade is a baseball for a cup of ice cream. Then he finds a broken bat and scores a Sharks sweatshirt in return. He also signs a few autographs.

“I’d practice all the time in high school,” McAlister says of mastering his signature. “I’d sit in class and do it over and over and change it until I like it.”

No backup plan

The game ends at 9:45 p.m. with Ben Gorski (Rutgers) closing out the win in the ninth. After high-fives are exchanged, Orbe addresses the team in shallow left field. He praises his players for their performance but doesn’t like the way some respond to adversity.

“Things happen,” Orbe says. “You can’t allow it to affect you on defense and in the dugout. You have to embrace the stuff. It’s going to happen. You have to battle through adversity.”

Orbe ends his chat with, “Let’s get the hell off this island.”

Before boarding the bus, the Schooners get something to eat. Home teams provide the post-game meals. Monday’s offering is either sausage on a roll or chicken, rice and beans.

Fed and ready to head home, they begin their journey back.

When the bus pulls up to the dock, there’s no boat. Then someone spots their ride approaching from off in the distance.

Asked what the backup is if the boat never showed up, Long responds: “We don’t have one. I don’t know what we’d do.”

Usually, if bad weather is in the forecast, the game is canceled well ahead of time and rescheduled for later in the season.

The calm, moonlit night is perfect for a late boat trip. Players and their gear pack the seats and deck. It’s an uneventful and pleasant 30-minute trip.

Arriving back on the Cape at 11:10 p.m., the Schooners step off the boat in Falmouth, walk a short distance and pile onto the coach bus. Orbe looks up some team statistics on his phone. Another game of Mafia breaks out in the back.

Eventually, everyone sits quietly in the dark for the remainder of the ride. The trip finally ends after 1 a.m. with the players grabbing their gear and walking to their cars.

More road games are in their future the remainder of the week, with a long trip to Montpelier to play Vermont on Wednesday. Destinations cover every New England state.

“It’s part of the summer experience,” Orbe says.

The Schooners won’t be back to Martha’s Vineyard until next season, unless the two teams face each other in the NECBL playoffs in early August. If the season ended Thursday, they would qualify for postseason play, standing at 18-12.

They’d happily repeat their journey — four bus rides, two boat trips, a few Mafia games, a karaoke performance and, hopefully, a gem of a victory — all over again.

g.keefe@theday.com