The season is upon us ...

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 first entry.

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Hey everybody, Greg Blohowiak (Blow) here with your 2011 installment of the “Diamond Chronicles”, featuring myself and Sam Sivilotti (Siv). We are welcoming you on the behalf of the team to our journey this season as we defend our Horizon League tournament championship crown.

First things first, that was a pretty fun season last year and I know that I didn’t get a chance to complete the blog. But, if I could think of one word to describe last year it would have to be 'definitive'. As the year progressed, we as a ball club, were defined by our timely hitting and complete pitching. We attribute our success to hard work and dedication throughout the year, as well as the preseason.

We thank all of you who took time out of your busy schedules to come out and watch us, wherever it may be (shout out to Bobby D. himself!), or if you watched on GameTracker. We appreciate all the support you’ve shown us along the way and look forward to the continuing support this season.

In a quick summary of the fall, we played outside and had fun while getting better everyday, making it that much harder for our coaches to make decisions on who should play, who should pitch and whatnot. The winter is always fun, hanging out inside the good ole Klotsche Center, doing live pitching sessions inside of a cage, as well as taking ground balls on that wood floor. It is a completely different atmosphere inside that place, which is good for us in a way. The floor kicks balls much quicker than outside, the white walls make it much harder to see and hit. We learn to adapt to these conditions and in the long run it makes us much better as players. Ask any of the hitters if they would rather hit in a cage or outside and they would tell you outside. Then ask them how much easier it is to hit outside following the winter months we deal with, and they would answer something like “the ball seems slower” or “the ball seems so much bigger”. It is very beneficial to be indoors during the winter months, but there is nothing like putting your spikes on and feeling them dig into the ground as you run.

As for our team this year, we have alot of talent. Our returning players are ready to build on last year's success and the newcomers are very excited to compete for a championship again. Our expectations remain the same year in and out, get better everyday and win the conference championship. We are told almost daily that this is a group of players with the most potential/talent that have been through the doors and we want to reach our ceiling, all of us, in order to return to the NCAA’s. We are very much looking forward to this next weekend as we head to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on an SEC opponent in the Tennessee Volunteers. We are very anxious to show the world what the only division I baseball team in Wisconsin has to offer and let the NCAA baseball community know we’re here to stay.

I look forward to reaching out to you all throughout the season, through the ups and downs, as well as giving a little insight to the 2011 Panthers. If you have any questions of sorts to as any players, or would like us to divulge into any other topics other than our games just let us know, via Facebook (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Baseball Team) or some team members. I’ll hand it off to Siv so he can give you his words of encouragement! But first...

Quick thoughts...
How bout them Packers!!!!! .... I am the biggest cheesehead after all ... that blizzard was something else, cars buried, stalled, batteries dying and getting tickets (ask Cole Kraft) ... if you haven’t seen the movie Inception I beg you to ... we have two freshmen that can dunk pretty handily and another who can't touch rim (Uhen, Solberg, then Porcaro) ... I really hope the Brewers excel, Melvin made some real moves this offseason ... finally .. EVERYONE should get a Twitter account. Next time I will post the names of teammates on Twitter. We will keep you updated as well as post pictures from where we’re at ... I urge you all to ... (for now if you do follow @gbloho15 <------me!) ... Ok Siv ...

Well guys, back at it and excited that baseball is right around the corner. Blow did a nice job of summarizing what we have been up to for the past six months while providing a little insight as to what we typically do over this time period. Tennessee has quickly approached us and we are ready to go. For the first time in school history, we received national preseason top 40 votes and we look to establish our credibility on a national level.

Our team understands that it's not where you start the year but where you finish. Stay with us. There will be bumps along the way and a few rough patches, but I can assure everyone that we will battle through these adverse times and show up each and everyday ready to perform at an elite level. Blow mentioned that we have an expectation to improve each day. Nothing short of that will be accepted. This is by far the most talented group of guys that I have been around since being here. From top to bottom, there is talent across the board, but talent doesn’t win ballgames.

It's time to go out and execute and play quality baseball day in and day out. The journey will officially begin this Thursday as we hop on that Lamers bus and spend countless hours on the road. In all reality though, us being Northerners (except Davis – Colorado – don’t let him fool you though he’s adapted more than enough to Milwaukee), we wouldn’t have it any other way. The grueling offseason workouts (6:30 a.m. conditioning in the fall, prowlers and sprints in the winter and weights) have prepared us for this opportunity.

Every year is unique in its own right but we look for one similarity in particular from last year – win a conference championship! Let the games begin and everyone enjoy the journey as we embark on defending our title. The support is greatly appreciated and we look forward to seeing all the parents, family and friends follow us around the country and at the HANK whether in attendance or at home on the computer.

Here’s to a fun and enjoyable season and lets make some more memories, for the right reasons again!