Back in the Saddle Again

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 sixth entry.

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After an emotional weekend against UIC, we headed out to Cleveland for a three game set with Cleveland State. As it always is, the expectation is to go into a weekend series and to win every game. With Cleveland State at the cellar of the conference, it was reinforced throughout the week at practice how important this series actually was.

Typically, when teams come off an emotional win, or series of wins, it is only natural to have a letdown. With that possibility lingering, we knew that we still would have to go out and play competitive baseball in order to accomplish our goal.

At no point in time can we expect to go into a game and go through the motions and expect to win. Unfortunately, the weekend did not completely play out the way we expected. After arriving in Cleveland late Thursday evening, we received our room assignments and got to bed. The weekend schedule changed a little bit due to the weather that was moving into the Cleveland area – we were going to play a Friday doubleheader and a single game on Saturday in hopes of playing the game in order to get back to Milwaukee Saturday evening.

Friday morning came fast. Up early and off to the ballpark it was. Nine hours at the ballpark awaited us and mentally we needed to get ready. After the standard batting practice and infield outfield routines, both teams were ready for battle.

Game one started a little slow for us as we continued to fight the cold and our own mistakes at times. The first five innings of that game were a struggle.

Fortunately, we were able to win the last four innings and propel ourselves to a victory. In the team huddle following the game, Coach Doffek and Bigler reemphasized that our performance was subpar and that we need to elevate our intensity if we wanted to win the second contest. Ironically, the same things the coaches highlighted following the first game was the downfall for us in the latter contest.

A few crucial errors, leadoff walks and untimely hitting lead to our defeat in the second game. We simply did not execute all three phases of the game in order to win. It is extremely difficult to analyze a game following a defeat when we know that the other team did nothing in order to win. We simply beat ourselves and did not play to our potential. The team now had something to sleep on and build off of in order to close out the series.

Game three was set for 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, but after rain showers in the morning the start time was pushed back an hour and a half. With game three underway, things seemed to be in control for the most part until the middle innings. After putting up a couple of runs and pitching out of a jam, it seemed as if we were in control. The fifth inning was a little different story. Cleveland State showed their resilience and fearlessness as they plated a couple of runs to cut our margin in half.

Fortunately, Mike Schneider came in and pitched out of another dicey situation to get us back in the dugout. From there on out, the pitching staff shut the door on Cleveland State and we were fortunate enough to walk out of there with a weekend series win. Following game three, everyone was ready to get back on the bus and get home in preparation for a huge upcoming weekend with Wright State.

As a team, we understand that we did not play our best baseball last weekend and that we need to shore some things up before battling Wright State. The Raiders will come to the Hank this weekend with something to prove. Rob Cooper, Wright State’s head coach, always has his team ready to play and this team they have a little extra motivation: we beat them in the Horizon League Tournament Championship in order to go to the NCAA Championship.

This weekend will be extremely important for us, as two titans clash in order to top the conference standings. Come out and support us at The Hank as this weekend should be filled with some high intensity fun to watch baseball.