The Road Show Continues ...

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 fifth entry.

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Sunny with a chance of freezing...

Welcome back all! I am even welcoming Sam and I back, since we took the week off following our Ohio University stop due to the much-needed spring break. Our Ohio trip was lackluster, especially after going 1-3 on the weekend. Not much to be said there, so as we geared up for the week without classes and a ton of free time. There is no doubt we’d be energized to play some baseball in Fort Wayne, IN.

To say we were expecting a complete turnaround in weather, like we were traveling somewhere south, is a stretch. However, we definitely thought by heading a tad south and a tad east we could escape this Milwaukee bitterness. That was completely false. We jumped off the bus on Thursday following a five-hour ride and immediately called for our sweats. This past weekend was something out of the ordinary. We got into the hotel with some time to waste, which is a complete 180 considering we usually get in around 11 pm-1 am local time. Some of us took advantage of the time and went to the local Walmart which was close by. The deals at Walmart are totally worthwhile and I don’t understand how they don’t have a monopoly on the grocery industry yet, but nonetheless I loaded up with Powerade, beef jerky, cashews and some other goodies and got back to the hotel.

The next three days were kind of a blur. Maybe I can blame the cold weather or the long days, but really asking me to remember specific details of each game would be hard at best. What I can remember was how cold it was (20-30 degrees and 10-20 mph winds on any given day), how much I tried to forget about how cold it really was, the benefits of having a jet engine as a heater in the dugout, and our overall record on the weekend.

The first game was won, 5-4, after coming back in the later part of the game to take the lead and win. The second game we found ourselves on the bitter end of a 5-4 score, following a solid effort from Chad Pierce and Gunnar Eastman. I myself allowed the game-winning hit, but I (as for a lot of others) still will not agree with the 2-2 ball call by the umpire on the guy who got the hit. In the third game, a.k.a. the marathon game, we ending up winning, 5-1, following a suspension in the game due to darkness.

It was the second game of the doubleheader which was also supposed to be a seven-inning game. This game was tied at one all the way until the next day, Sunday, in the 12th inning, when we poured on four runs. In the fourth game we ended up struggling to get in a rhythm offensively and we lost 3-0. A weekend split at IPFW.

We can take alot out of the games we played this past weekend. There are areas of our game where we all need to improve. We are stressing it ten-fold considering our first conference series is this coming weekend at The Hank (<<< Home Field!!!).

There are certain aspects of this game that we cannot allow to happen and at times we struggle with disallowing them to happen, however, we are very confident in our abilities and are confident we will succeed. The record for us thus far is something that you can take with a grain of salt. We beat a couple big-time schools, and have played well against some as well. We also have “choked” or basically not played well in other games.

Our true identity is not made in these first 20 games, as we strive to becoming the best team we can as conference play begins. This weekend versus Butler is going to be very fun as well as very telling as to what type of team we’ll be. I urge you all to come out to The Hank (Hampton/Green Bay Ave.) and watch some quality baseball. Whether it is because you enjoy baseball, you know one of the guys on the team, or you just want to show support for a team that will never give up, we would definitely appreciate it!

Sivvy is taking the week off to complete some school work and whatnot. He’ll be back next week for sure to break down our hopeful series win versus Butler. Til next time!

Quick Thoughts From Blow ... this weather is stupid ... cold then warm then somewhat warm then super cold ... figure it out mother nature ... we want to practice and play at The Hank ... Opening day tomorrow!!! Go Brewers! Go Orioles! (<< Personal reasons) ... if MLB Opening day doesn’t get you in the mood for baseball, I don’t know what will ... our trainer Kevin “Flo” Florentino has a lot of sweet pairs of shoes ... my face is still wind/sun/both burned from this past weekend ... I wanna see Limitless, someone let me know if its good ... lastly, it’s gonna feel so amazing not having to travel on Thursday, get into a hotel, and play ... sleeping in my own bed, cooking my own meals and seeing family is gonna be a breath of fresh air this weekend! Good day to all!