Day 2 of the Major League Baseball draft doesn’t quite draw the attention that Day 1 does, but Monday ended up being a special one for three Rhode Island pitchers.

Middletown’s Ryan Andrade, North Providence’s Nick Conte and Coventry’s Jayden Voelker were all selected out of their respective colleges on Monday afternoon between picks 216 and 246, giving them a chance to chase a goal every baseball player dreams about.

Andrade, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, was first off the board, being drafted in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Rays with the 216^th overall pick.

After helping lead Middletown to the 2021 Division II title — earning first-team All-State honors along the way — Andrade went on to pitch at the University of Rhode Island for two years. He entered the transfer portal and was heavily recruited by power five conferences before ending up at the University of Pittsburgh.

Andrade was the Panthers’ top pitcher this past spring and earned an invite to the MLB Combine, where he shined in front of scouts. Baseball America reported his fastball averaged 93 mph and topped at 95 and had a high spin rate on his pitches as well.

Ten picks after Andrade was drafted, Conte — also a pitcher — was taken, snatched up by the Kansas City Royals with the second pick of the eighth round.

Conte, a 5-10 righthander, starred at North Providence and after a terrific junior season. He was primed for an All-State season in his senior year but COVID robbed him of the chance to play his final year for the Cougars.

The summer prior to his senior year, Conte added 25 pounds to his frame and went from throwing high 80s to the mid-90s. His recruiting went big time after some showcase performances and he went to Duke University. There, he ended up being the closer for the Blue Devils and helped them win the ACC championship his freshman season in 2021.

Conte continued to shine as a reliever at Duke. This past spring he appeared in 20 games, throwing 18⅓ innings while striking out 23. Over his Duke career, Conte held opponents to a .209 batting average.

Later in the eighth round, it was Voelker’s turn, drafted by the Rays with the 246^th overall pick.

Voelker didn’t waste time in creating a name for himself at Coventry. He was one of the state’s best pitchers during his freshman season, earning first-team All-State honors in 2018. After making the second team during his sophomore year — then missing junior year after COVID wiped out the season — Voelker earned another first-team selection for his work as a first baseman for the Oakers.

Voelker, a 6-foot-5 righthander, went to Northern Essex Community College and immediately dominated. His first season he posted a 5-1 record with a 1.80 ERA, striking out 49 batters in 30 innings. A wrist injury cost him his 2023 season, but he bounced back with a wildly impressive season to put himself on MLB teams’ radars.

This past spring Voelker was named the 2024 NJCAA Division III Baseball Pitcher of the Year. He went 8-2, striking out 126 batters in only 61 innings of work. His 126 Ks and 18.69 strikeouts per game led the country.

On a mild February day in 2020, a short, 32-year-old Rhode Islander sporting a black top hat pressed down over his ears escorted his newest bride from a village church in Bristol, England, then paused with her beside the stones of the dead – fittingly enough, it now seems – for wedding photos.

Nick Alahverdian had been spending time recently erasing all likenesses of himself on the internet. But there was no avoiding these photographs. It would look too odd. And there was already plenty of oddness about this picture: a groom with no family or friends present. His new brother–in-law filled in as best man.

So, Alahverdian, a man of numerous aliases, police would later say, smiled as the bride’s few guests and family members tossed paper hearts into the air. The hearts fluttered like butterflies over the newlyweds, some settling in the bouquet of purple and yellow flowers held by Alahverdian’s third (at least) wife, Miranda. 

Life seemed to be falling neatly into place. And seven days later, Alahverdian, with one keystroke, would finalize the deception he’d been arranging back in Rhode Island for weeks. 

His death. 

Nick Alahverdian/Nicholas Rossi on trial for rape in Utah

Things did not work out as planned. 

On Friday, a day after his 37th birthday, Alahverdian was scheduled to appear remotely in a Utah courtroom from the prison where he’s being held without bail on two 2008 rape charges.

His pre-trial court appearances have been the latest snippets in a media-grabbing drama that began with him faking his death to escape an FBI fraud investigation, then masquerading as someone else in Scotland to (unsuccessfully) fight his extradition. Now, he’s carrying on his charade back across an ocean. 

He insists, still, that he is Arthur Knight, a onetime Irish orphan turned English academic and a victim of a “monstrous case of mistaken identity.” 

More: Dive deeper into Nick Alahverdian’s story with these podcasts and documentaries

Nick Alahverdian/Nicholas Rossi’s story featured in new docuseries on Peacock

As his real-life rape prosecutions move closer to trial, the entire Alahverdian saga up to this point is the subject of a four-part docuseries, which begins streaming in the United States this week on NBCUniversal’s Peacock. 

The docuseries, titled: “Rossi: A Fugitive Faking Death,” is available starting Tuesday, an NBC spokesman confirmed. 

The docuseries uses the name Rossi to identify its main character, which is the surname of Alahverdian’s stepfather and the name he’s charged under in Utah. 

But Alahverdian reverted to using the last name of his biological father in 2011, when, as a former child welfare reform advocate, he filed suit against the state Department of Children, Youth and Families over his placement in out-of-state behavioral treatment centers. 

The docuseries, which The Providence Journal participated in, was produced by Five Mile Films, of Bristol, England, and is being distributed by BBC Studios. 

In January 2020, with the FBI looking into allegations that he committed $200,000 of credit card fraud in the name of his foster father, Alahverdian spread the lie among Rhode Island media outlets that he was dying of cancer. Then, days after his marriage in England, he sent out a press release of the demise of this “warrior” for children.  

Then came the emails and phone calls to reporters from his “widow” about two memorial services and her insistence that they be covered. Neither service happened, because investigators had told the church leaders that they suspected Alahverdian was still alive. 

American law enforcement officials tracked him to Scotland after searching his iCloud account and seeing photographs of him posing with Miranda at Scottish landmarks and dining at recognizable restaurants. 

He was arrested on rape charges in December 2021 in a Glasgow hospital, where he was suffering from COVID. 

Following his arrest, prosecutors in Utah said that at least a dozen women in four states had accused Alahverdian over the years of various crimes, including sexual and domestic assault, rape, extortion and kidnapping. 

In the same year he is alleged to have raped two Utah women, he was convicted of groping a female student in a stairwell at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and ordered to register as a sex offender. 

Alahverdian then tormented his victim online and sued her claiming his conviction was “tantamount to flying planes into my twin pillars of personal success and public service.” His appeal was thrown out after a computer expert testified Alahverdian’s “new” evidence of an online posting supposedly written by his victim had been fabricated. 

Viewers of the docuseries will hear several women tell of meeting Alahverdian online and being victimized, threatened and conned by him, while his current wife, Miranda — who had told The Journal she had hoped to have a child with her husband — insists authorities have the wrong man. 

In August 2023, a Scottish judge finally ruled that Alahverdian was indeed the man American law enforcement officials had sought. 

The judge based his identity finding on fingerprints, previous mug shots of Alahverdian and striking arm tattoos.  

Alahverdian mustered a bizarre retort: that some mystery person must have inked those tattoos on him while he was comatose, and that a colluding hospital employee secretly dashed off a copy of his fingerprints to Utah prosecutors. 

Said the Scottish judge of Alahverdian: He is “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.” 

Contact Tom Mooney: tmooney@providencejournal.com.

WASHINGTON — Thousands of Republicans will gather in Milwaukee beginning Monday for the party’s presidential nominating convention — a typically joyous occasion that will likely take on a different tone this year after a gunman shot at Donald Trump, injuring him, on Saturday.

FBI identifies shooter in assassination attempt on Trump at Butler rally

Trump, who will be formally nominated as the GOP’s presidential nominee on Thursday, still plans to attend the convention and officials stress the four-day event will go on as normal.

The shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania is being investigated as an attempted assassination and the FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa. The U.S. Secret Service “neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased,” the Secret Service said.

Trump, who has been declared “safe” by the Secret Service, posted on social media Sunday morning that he was still looking “forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin.”

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump wrote. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”

Senior advisors to the Trump campaign Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita released a statement hours after the shooting on Saturday to say that the former president wasn’t changing his plans.

“President Trump looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th President of the United States,” Wiles and LaCivita wrote in a joint statement. “As our party’s nominee, President Trump will continue to share his vision to Make America Great Again.”

Reince Priebus, chairman of the MKE 2024 Host Committee, said in a separate statement that he was “heartbroken that reports indicate that at least one innocent person has been killed and perhaps others have been injured. This horrific violence has no place in America.”

“Guests have already begun to arrive in Wisconsin, and we look forward to working with the Republican National Committee to welcome everyone to Milwaukee this week,” Priebus added.

Political party conventions are designated as National Special Security Events, or NSSEs, and come with extremely heightened security compared to a typical campaign rally.

The Secret Service will have at least two security perimeters around the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee and the city itself will be swarming with additional federal, state and local law enforcement officers.

The convention will still host speeches throughout the week and the dozens of side events hosted by state Republican Parties and conservative organizations were still expected to continue, though likely with a more somber mood than was planned before the shooting.