Gameday!

Senior Sam Sivilotti and junior Greg Blohowiak, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will once again be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

They are back for their second go around and today is their second entry.

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Rocky Top ... what does that even mean?

Hey, its Blow (Greg Blohowiak), I first would like to thank those who took time to make the trip to Knoxville for us, as well as those who took time out of their day to watch us on GameTracker, live feed, or listen to the game online. Your support means a lot to us and we are not about to disappoint our fans.

Secondly, that was a great weekend, weather-wise, for baseball. Wow, Tennessee you did your job of being nice and warm and I can be the first to tell you we have guys coming home with sunburn.

Thirdly, Siv and I are gonna change the structure of the Diamond Chronicles. Instead of basically going play-for-play in each game, we’ll instead give you the gist of it. I'm sure for those who are reading it were ones watching the games or at least took time out to check out the box scores. I'll just cover the first two games and add some other tidbits about the weekend.

I can honestly say I was looking forward to this 11-hour bus ride. I had so many things I could do to keep me occupied, so I was geared up and ready to go. Needless to say, I didn’t get to do all those things I wanted to and the 11 hours felt more like three. I’m sure it was all the anticipation of playing the first series of the year against an SEC opponent - but hey, I can’t complain. We made it to the hotel around 1:30 eastern time and they placed us at the Airport Hilton with NO food options within walking distance.

We would have to take the shuttle in order to grab some grub for breakfast or whatnot. Oh well, we got our room assignments and got to bed, as we were all tired from that cramped bus. It is now Friday and we have to leave the hotel by 11:45 a.m. so we can get some early ground balls and fly balls since we’ve been in the good ol' Klotsche Center for the last three months we had to gauge the field of play. The Volunteers field/stadium was pretty nice and, according to Chad Pierce (former Arkansas Razorback), it is in the middle of the road as far as SEC standards go. By ours, it is pretty much pristine.

So we get to BP and get that over with and line up for the National Anthem. All the preparation in the past six months is culminated in this song. Anticipation is at an all-time high at this point and our team is geared up and ready to go. To make a long story short we made a couple mistakes in the game and ending up losing it 4-0. And that is exactly what it was, us losing it, not Tennessee winning it. We gave them three outs on the bases and in the inning where they blew up for three runs we walked a batter and hit one as well. And, anyone who plays can tell you those add up really quick. We were very disappointed, however, we had so much to be encouraged about - our pitching was solid and we belted out 10 hits. We just had to brush off the indoor dust and get better the next day.

After the game we all got pizzas and made our way back to the hotel. Some of us visited with family members, went swimming or in the 2-foot by 2-foot hot tub, or played cards. Before I knew it we were up and showering in time for the next game.

We went to the field and got ourselves ready for the game and eventually ended up dropping the decision, 7-6. We played much better than Friday, as our bats woke up in clutch situations. However, we gave up a couple big innings with some free bases. That has been the issue the past couple games, free bases. The worst thing you can do after you have a momentum swing to your side, and that’s walk a batter to begin the next inning - and I feel like that was almost customary for us. The little things in baseball are going to kill ya, and we were perfect examples of that. We had the worst tastes in our mouths following this game because we feel as though we outplayed them in both contests, but failed to show for it in our record. We were however, again encouraged with the outcome but not happy with the loss. Our thinking at this point is that we have to come out on Sunday and perform at the top of our game, to show the Volunteers what our identity, or brand of baseball really is. If I could reiterate one thing that Coach Doffek relays to us is that we have to develop an identity, and tough road games versus opponents such as Tennessee can further enhance that.

For our dinner that night we went to the best buffet east of the Mississippi, Ryans Steak and Buffet. That was about it for the night, other than more cards being played and hanging out around the hotel there is not much to be said, before I hand it off to Siv.

Quick thoughts from Blow ... shout out to Brian Morgan, the sole man holding down the ticket office over at UWM, keep doing quality work and we’ll keep getting wins ... there is nothing like walking into a buffet with 20+ guys and have all eyes on you ... it's kind of eerie, but now I know what it was like when I saw Brett Favre in church on Christmas Eve of '07 ... once again, our redshirt freshman Mike Porcaro - aka Mikey P - cannot grab rim ... cowtails are among my favorite candies, probably fourth behind sour patch kids, sour jolly ranchers, and Mike n' Ikes ... our assistant head coach/pitching coach might have a sweeter tooth than I do ... lastly, even though we complain about long bus rides, we all embrace it and end up enjoying the camaraderie ... here's Sam.

Thanks Blow, games one and two were great disappointments as far as outcomes, but encouraging in the sense that we were competitive. Blow talked about our identity. What is our identity? Not really sure at this point but we are going to figure it out. This team grinds it out, as can be seen in the first two games. If you were to read anything the Tennessee head coach released in his preseason media day, you would have thought we were going to play the Yankees. Come on, really? I personally think that we gave them everything they could handle. Whether they see it that way is unknown, but we know that we gave away games one and two.

Game three was a different story. We came out with a little different expectation…to win. If one thing is going to help establish our identity, it is the ability to come out and play fundamental baseball day in and day out, grinding out at bats, throwing strikes, and making routine plays on the defensive side of the ball. In the long run, this will keep us in games and get W’s more times than not.

Sunday was a perfect example in the finale of the series. We got ahead early and never looked back. There was some adversity in the middle innings of the game but we overcame the unsportsmanlike crowd and their threat. Regardless, we got a win.

Going 1-2 was not the goal going into the weekend, but there were positives throughout the weekend. This team has the potential to exceed expectations and be a really sound squad if we continue to strive for success. We have to keep our eye on the bigger picture (winning conference) and along the way we are going to surprise some people and turn a few heads. A little snapshot can be taken away from this trip. The boys from Tennessee are playing outdoors practically 12 months of the year, have an unbelievable field, indoor turf hitting and pitching facilities, a strength coach designated just for the baseball team and a quality environment – all the factors that would lead a person to believe that they would come out and smoke us ... not happening with the mental makeup of this team.

We’ve been inside for six months, groundballs off of a gym floor, live hitting with a white back drop which makes it nearly impossible to see the ball and the daily grind of being a team from the North. Nonetheless, we use none of these things as excuses and have the expectation to win. We will continue to improve, make adjustments and grow as a team. Stick with us. The support is appreciated.

We want to make this a memorable season, and the only way to do that is by working hard. This team will not give in and we’ll see where were at when the season concludes. Find a way! – Our team motto … find a way to keep following and we will find a way to put an entertaining product on the field. As we grow and the support grows, the program grows. This is the only Division 1 Baseball program in the state and we will continue to strive to make a name for the Panthers and attract the support that this team and program deserves.

Thanks for everything and let's go win a series this weekend and comeback for some more fun next week.