The Journey: Valparaiso

Junior Sam Sivilotti and sophomore Greg Blohowiak, members of the UWM baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website. This is their ninth entry.

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April Showers bring May Flowers...

We have now found ourselves in the thick of things in the Horizon League. Even though the conference season is halfway through, we have, legitimately, five teams who are vying for the top spot in the conference. This weekend we welcomed Valparasio into the friendly confines of “The Hank”. We are currently riding an 18-game win streak while playing at “The Hank”, and looking to extend that streak throughout the weekend.

Getting the Friday start is Chad Pierce, coming off a no-decision last Friday, Pierce is looking to get another Horizon League win. Valpo got off to a quick start plating two runs in the first two innings. Having already thrown 61 pitches throughout the first 2 2/3 innings with 4 walks, Pierce was relieved by senior Luke Annen, who got the final out of the 3rd unscathed. In the bottom half of the inning our offense got things going, starting with a double off the bat of Cole Kraft followed by a single from Shaun Wegner. Following reaching off of a fielders choice, we found ourselves with the bases loaded and no outs. Senior Ben Long then singled through the right side plating 2 runs, tying the game.

The following innings proved to explain the crazy game of baseball. In the top half of the 4th and 6th, Valpo gathered 6 and 7 runs, respectively. It seemed as though every single hit they had was in the hole. It was as if in the Valpo dugout they had rigged the ball with a remote control and they were guiding the ball throughout the field. Luke Annen pitched well and was ahead of most of the batters he faced, however the game of baseball can treat you like that sometimes. No matter where we pitched it they seemed to get a hit. Following another two runs in the top of the 9th we saw the final score rest at 17-3. We got our third run on a homerun to right field off the bat of junior Doug Dekoning, into howling wind might I add.

This game was definitely not the type of game we were looking for to kick off a series. Getting thwarted at home, ending our 18-game “Hank” win streak, was absolutely demoralizing. However demoralizing it was, we also knew we lived to play another day. We had two more games to get ready for and they would prove to be what was most important. We tarped the field in anticipation of heavy rain that night and went home to relax. This final day of April brought “showers” in both runs and actual rain, hopefully it would bring “flowers” on the Saturday doubleheader.

Saturday morning came early. We arrived at the field a half hour early to pull the tarp and take care of the necessary field duties in preparation for the doubleheader. Kyle Schmidt started the first game for us. Valparaiso countered with the hard throwing righthander Bryce Shafer. The first inning was rough for both teams. Schmidt gave up three runs on three hits and an error in the opening frame. Thankfully he settled in, after our offense countered with a three-spot of our own in the bottom half of the frame. From that point on, runs were hard to come by. Valpo added single run innings in the third and the seventh to tally five in the game. Our offense closed the gap with a run of our own in the sixth to bring us even and then back down eventually one after Valpo struck in the seventh. The table was set for an opportunity to come back in the ninth. With the 18-game home winning streak snapped the day before, we were anxious to start another. In the bottom of the ninth things started slow but there was a bright spot, Shafer was out and in came a reliever. After a groundout, Dekoning hit a single up the middle. Following a pop out things began to look even more bleak. Needing this game so badly we knew we could not just fold up and give in. Tim Patzman then singled through the left side to move Dekoning up to second. Out came one reliever and in came another. Dan Buccholz then stepped into the box. Down 0-2 in the count early, Bucchy put together one of the more impressive at bats of the year. He fought back to 2-2 fouling multiple pitches. Finally, he managed to get the count to 3-2. Buccholz then hit a laser back up the middle allowing Dekoning to score from second and tie the game. Paul Hoenecke followed Buccholz. Paul took a 1-1 fastball and hit a rope to centerfield that was unfortunately caught. Nonetheless, we tied the game at 5-5 and had an opportunity to win. It was not until the eleventh frame that the fireworks came. With two outs and nobody on, Ben Long hit a single to the left side, bringing up the hot-swinging Tim Patzman. Patzman dug in and really came up big. He quickly got down 1-2 in the count but found a way to work it back to even at 2-2. He then got a fastball on the outside half of the plate that he drove to left field. Roars erupted. The ball was in the jet stream and we knew it had a chance. Everyone jumped up from the bench to watch the ball carry through the air. The leftfielder continued to go back and eventually got to the wall. The ball cleared the fence by 30 feet. Our whole team ran to the plate awaiting to greet Tim. He rounded third base, threw his helmet in the air, and jumped on home plate as he got mauled by our entire team. A walk-off home run. What a great way to start off a day in which both games were must-win.

Following the fireworks of game one, both teams prepared for the series finale. In general, game two of the day was pretty slow. The first run of the game came in the bottom of the fifth when Sam Sivilotti doubled to centerfield to start the frame. Following a lineout, Alex Erdman singled to the shortstop advancing Sivilotti to third. Sivilotti was eventually plated after Cole Kraft singled through the left side, giving us our first run of the game. We eventually added two more in the seventh to give us a 3-0 lead going into the back end of the game. Jeff Gordon did an outstanding job for us on the hill as he threw 6.2 of scoreless ball, striking out three and only scattering four hits. Cameron Amsrud then came in to toss the last 2.1 while striking out three of his own in putting up scoreless frames to close the game out. The series was ours and we know were in a position to make an end of the year run that could potentially win us a conference championship. Three weekend series to go, 10 conference games left, an opportunity to win a title. The most important one this upcoming week as we head to Dayton for a first-place showdown with Wright State. With a little rivalry to spice things up, this weekend could have a number of fireworks as we hope to jump into first place and over take the league.