By Julie Borshak
Former Agate and part-time Two Harbors resident Eric Fransen acquired a stake in the newly renamed Pineville Porcupines of the Old North State Baseball League.
(Ramseur, NC) The Old North State Baseball League (ONSL) Announces that an entrepreneur, Eric Fransen, has acquired an Interest in the Pineville Porcupines, formerly known as the Mecklenburg Muscadines, based in Pineville, NC.
Eric Fransen owns Klik Marketing which is a North Carolina-based boutique digital marketing company that serves national clients and fulfills their needs through creative, analytics, and marketing. Klik Marketing also has a strong Two Harbors presence. Fransen, a former baseball player for the University of Minnesota-Duluth also spent summers playing for the Duluth Express. Fransen stated, “What the Allred Family has built with the ONSL is incredible. In a short period of time they have built up a 15-team league that covers the state of North Carolina. I’m so humbled to have the opportunity to be part of it.”
President and CEO of the Old North State League, Alec Allred, touted the new partnership, “The Old North State League is very excited to welcome Eric Fransen as member of the Ownership group that operates the Pineville Porcupines. Eric is going to do an outstanding job as the GM and we are all confident with the partnership of Eric Fransen and Ballred LLC, that the Porcupines are going to take the Collegiate Summer Baseball Landscape by storm!”
Kyle Confer, Ballred Sports, LLC, COO added, “Ballred LLC is very excited to partner with Eric Fransen going forward in Pineville. In our preliminary discussions, Eric shared his incredible vision for the Porcupines and for the Pineville community. We are extremely confident that Eric, as the Operating Partner and GM, will establish the Porcupines as a highly successful franchise in the Old North State League!”
The ONSL Mecklenburg Muscadines were originally known as the Mocksville Muscadines in 2020 and 2021 before moving to Pineville in 2022 as the Mecklenburg Muscadines. Fransen explains, “At the end of last year we knew that we wanted to become Pineville’s team not just in location, but also in name. To truly make it Pineville’s team we wanted to give the people of Pineville an opportunity to choose a new name. The community came out of the woodwork to participate in online polling and the Pineville Porcupines were born.”
The ONSL season runs from May to July. The Porcupines play at Jack D. Hughes Memorial Park which is located at 513 Main Street in downtown Pineville. The Old North State League consists of fifteen collegiate baseball teams in locations from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Coast.
