Unexpected Endings

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their ninth and final entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

It’s hard to believe that the season is over. It feels like yesterday we were just getting on the flight to head out for the season opener against New Mexico State. As I drove home yesterday, all that was going through my head was all the memories from the season. So many positive/funny memories. As I look back, I can’t help but smile about all the good times this team had. We went through so much together and became so close with one another. We became a family.

Obviously, the season didn’t end the way we wanted to. It’s disappointing, but at the same time we can’t hang our heads. We had a great season, and accomplished so many things. We had to deal with all the crappy weather, not playing a home game until the end of April, traveling thousands of miles for the first two-and-a-half months of the year, and practicing inside a basketball arena for pretty much the entire year. Despite all of the adversity this team faced, we rose to the occasion. That’s what makes me proud to be apart of this team and to be a Panther.

This year was special. We won the regular season title, went undefeated at The Hank, and went 3-0 against Big 10 teams. It’s so cool to be a part of that. This program has come so far. Just typing this gets me excited for the future. I know each and every one of us who is returning next year is anxious to step back on campus. We got a taste of success this year, but we are hungry for more. With the type of guys we have returning, I fully expect each and every one of us to come back in the fall better than when we left.

Man, I just can’t believe it’s over. You spend literally every day with your teammates for about nine months. You become used to seeing the same faces every day. In the blink of an eye, it’s over. It’s hard knowing the seniors are leaving and you’re going to be away from your teammates for a few months. It’s sad.

I love this city, I love this team, I love my teammates and I love being a Panther. I can’t wait to come back in the fall. I hope everyone has a great summer. A lot of us will be around the state playing baseball this summer. Hopefully we will see some of you at the park.

It’s been real Panther Nation. Until next time …

Paco

Just Another Bus Ride ...

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their eighth entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

Top 5 Things To Do On The Bus

So, while we were driving up to Minnesota, I was bored out of my mind and thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the top five things to do on the bus. This is also a chance for ya’ll to get a glimpse of what it’s like to be on a long bus trip as a Panther.

#5: Attempt to do homework

Notice, I said attempt and not do. It is almost impossible to do your homework on the bus. First off, you’re driving, and the bumps the bus hits every two seconds get really annoying when trying to write notes or do math problems. Second, you have plenty of distractions to keep you from doing your homework. There is usually a movie on, you got your cell phone by your side, and you also have the company of your teammates. The thoughts going through your head on the ride there are always, “I’ll do my homework on the way back to Milwaukee”. But, then on the way back, after playing a game and being completely exhausted, the last thing you want to do is homework. Your brain is fried and your body just wants to rest. This usually leads to an early wake up call the next day to finish homework before class.

#4: Attempt to nap

Once again, I said attempt. If you’re a freshman or sophomore, chances are you are sharing a seat and sleeping is very hard. Even if you have your own seat, it’s hard to get comfortable on the bus. Some guys go with the 'lay-out on both seats and have your legs in the aisle' technique. That usually kills your back. Others will go with the 'sleep on the floor' trick. That might be the most effective way to nap. You got to have a pillow to nap. Headphones are important as well so you can block out the noise on the bus. Personally, I try to nap by lying on both seats with my feet up on the seat on the other side. Usually works until someone from the front of the bus decides to take a bathroom break and runs into your legs. Then you spend the rest of the time trying to fall back asleep. Rooks!

#3: Utilize the technology you have

This is probably one of the most common things done on the bus. Before the trip it is important to make sure your phone, laptop, iPod, iPad and whatever other technology you have is fully charged. Otherwise the trip will be much longer. Most guys will go through their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feed every half hour. We are probably the most active people on social media during our bus trip because we have nothing else to do. Some guys will use their laptops or iPads to watch movies. Others will just listen to their iPods and think about life. Playing games on the phone is fun until you’re battery is low after two hours. Then you can’t even check your phone to use the map and see how far out we are. Once the phone dies, you go old school and look out the window and daydream.

#2: Watch the movie

We usually show about 2 or 3 movies on long trips, ones that are 9 or more hours. This is a pretty effective way to kill time. If you sit back and enjoy the movie, it saves battery life on your phone and makes the trip go faster. Comedy movies are definitely the best. There is usually at least one Will Ferrell movie on every trip. He’s a team favorite. When we don’t have a long trip and only show one movie, then you’re stuck trying to find another way to kill time.

#1: Play cards

This is by far the best thing to do on the bus. Bunko and euchre are the two most common card games played on the bus. Usually, there is a game of each going on at the same time. Six guys play bunko and four play euchre. I am a bunko guy. This is the first year I participated in playing bunko. It’s really fun and has made the road trips a lot faster. Playing cards is definitely a veteran move. Not a lot of young guys participate, but they’ll learn, as they get older it is the best way to make a road trip faster.

Well, we just got to Minneapolis. As my good friend Mike Goetz would say, this six hour drive was a lay up.

Time to go Gopher hunting.

Go Panthers! Paco

Hiatus over, the BLOG is back!

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their seventh entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

It’s been a while. Sorry we haven’t blogged recently. We went on that like 10-day stretch without a game, so you guys haven’t really been missing anything. We were just in the Klotsche every day wondering if we will ever play at The Hank again!

But, we finally had some nice weather this past week and it was great to play in front of the home crowd. The game against Northwestern at Miller Park was really cool. Such a neat experience. So awesome to see people come out and support us and showing their passion for UWM baseball! You guys are awesome! It was also cool to rock some sick throwback unis! We had the privilege to meet some former Green Gulls! You could tell they were really excited to see us with the Green Gull uniforms on. It was great having them out there and playing in front of those guys!

WATCH the recap video HERE.

BIG THANKS to all the students that came out on Friday to support us against UIC. That was awesome to see you guys out there and it was so much fun playing in front of you guys. We hope you guys had fun and make it back out there later this year. Parents and friends, don’t think we forgot about you! You guys have been amazing this year! I love how this team is one big family!

Well, there sure were a lot of positives from this last week. Winning five games in five days after not playing for about 10 days isn’t bad and we are very pleased. It wasn’t easy and it isn’t going to get any easier so we need to continue to get better. We know we have to improve in a lot of areas if we want to accomplish our goals.

The schedule is about to get real busy coming up here. I believe we have 20 games in 22 days or something like that! That’s crazy but hey, we signed up to play baseball and I can’t wait to take the field! It’s going to go by fast and we don’t have many games at The Hank left! It’s important that we enjoy each day and stay in the moment!

Hope you all have a good week and enjoy the weather! Go Panthers!

Paco Thoughts… Pray for EK… Congrats to Sam Koenig on being Horizon League Hitter of the Week! A Chipotle burrito bowl is my favorite meal on the planet! Brightens my day every time! Jean Segura is going to be a heck of a shortstop in the league… I know my boy Mitch Ghelfi will agree with that statement!

Just Call it "Henry Aaron-Les Miller Park"

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their seventh entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

First off, I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and enjoyed their time with their families and friends.

Thank you to all the family and friends who made the trip to Chicago for our first “home” series of the year. You guys have been amazing all year traveling around with us and supporting us through the ups and downs. We can’t thank you enough. Thanks to all of you who have been taking photos of us throughout the year. While most of us won’t admit it, it’s fun to look at photos from the season so we really do appreciate it!

Even though the Hank wasn’t ready in time for our home opener, it was still nice to be able to put on the white unis for a three-game series. The weekend went well and I am very happy with the way we performed against a quality opponent in Valpo. They are one of the best teams at coming out and competing and we knew it was going to be a hard-fought series.

It all started with Jake Long’s performance on Friday. What he has done these past three weeks has been incredible. It is so cool to see a guy have success after working so hard to get to the point he’s at. Him going out there in game one of the series and setting the tone for the rest of the weekend has been huge for us.

I also want to recognize the effort Mitch Ghelfi gave us this weekend. He caught 27 innings in two days. He did a great job behind the dish. Doing that much squatting isn’t easy and doesn’t make it any easier to hit, but despite that he still swung the bat really well. Big time performance by him.

All in all, this weekend was a team effort; it always is and always will be. That’s the only way this team will succeed.

We’ve had a great start to the conference year but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We are going to continue to work hard and strive to get better every day. That’s the only way to do it.

“The road to being a champion is always under construction.”- Bo Porter

With that being said, lets get back to work.

Wind Chill of 23 Degrees? ... No Big Deal.

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their sixth entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

Hats off to Panther Nation!! We had more fans the whole weekend than UIC in 30-degree weather on the road! You guys are the best! Thank you for traveling and sticking it out in the frigid temps.

Man, there are so many great things to talk about from this weekend, I’ll probably forget a few. I’ll start by saying what a phenomenal job by our pitching staff. Jake Long throws another complete gem and then Tass follows it up with another great start in game two! Incredible! First time we’ve had back-to-back shutouts since 2000. That’s awesome!

The bullpen had its best outing of the year this series. Thicke, EK, Quish, and Josh threw the ball great! Unbelievable job by Quish in game three. We were down 5-zip when he came in and he goes out and keeps us in the game. You might think to yourself, “Yea, whatever the pitchers threw strikes.” No, these guys threw all their pitches for strikes in mid 30-degree temps. Outstanding job by Bigler’s troops!

Oh, I almost forgot about the offense. The bats picked up right where they left off in Wright State. As hard as it is for pitchers to throw in cold weather, it might be just as hard, if not harder to hit in colder temps. But that didn’t stop our bats from hitting bombs! Drewpy did it again, going yahtzee on his birthday! That was one of the coolest things ever! Mitchy slick had an impressive game in game two. Five hits in five at bats with two doubles and his first collegiate home run. Have a day! And he hit the home run into the wind! But no wind can hold top shelf Ghelf in the yard! Sammy Koenig swung the bat real well all weekend, and hit a BOMB in game three!

Supposed to be at "The Hank" this week, but Mother Nature might not allow us to get out there! We’ve been on the road for a while now and are looking forward to playing a home series in front of our fans! We hope to see you all this weekend for a HUGE series against Valpo!

Paco thoughts… Props to Josh Uhen for picking Florida Gulf Coast to beat Georgetown… One week away from Opening Night in the MLB! Spring break felt more like winter break part two… As much as I dislike a lot of things about Chicago (the Cubs and Bears and 99 percent of their fans) I absolutely love the Chicago skyline!

Here’s my boy EK…

Well now that spring break is over it's back to hitting the books. As important as school is, it’s hard to stay focused in class when all we want to do is play ball. We are hotter than a pistol right now and that’s what makes it hard to want to do anything else. Our bats and pitching are unstoppable right now. We let the third game slip on Saturday, but we fought our way back to make it a close play at home to tie the game. Jake Long has been phenomenal, two weekends, back to back throwing a complete game! Then Saturday Tassi came in and threw a great game, and had the bullpen finish it off. One of the most encouraging parts of the weekend is seeing our bullpen coming in and throwing well. The past couple weekends the bullpen has struggled, but it is getting turned around. We still have small glitches to fix yet, but when we do we will be lights out.

I would like to give Drew (light tower power) Pearson a birthday shout out! Hitting another bomb this weekend was the icing on the cake. Great to see the true ROOK of the team swing the bat well.

Again I would like to thank the Panther Nation for making their way to Chicago to support us in the great weather, and hope to see you guys next weekend as we take on Valpo! GO PANTHERS!!!

What's on the Horizon?

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their fifth entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

Sorry we’ve been out of the blog for the last two weeks. We got back from Evansville a day later than we normally would a few weeks ago and spent the next two days scrambling to get back on track in school. Before we knew it, we were back on a bus to Tennessee. This past week we were on our study grind preparing for mid-terms. STUDENT-athletes!!! But, we’re on spring break now and have some time to give ya an update on what’s going on.

Started our conference season this past weekend with a big series at Wright State. Played very well the majority of the weekend and came back to the Mil with a huge series win! It’s a great start to the conference season but, as always, we gotta keep getting better everyday.

The pitching was excellent this past weekend. Jake Long threw a gem for the second straight week in game one of the series. He had great pace and rhythm, threw strikes and let the defense work behind him. Just found out today he earned Horizon League Pitcher of the Week for his efforts! Congrats to Jake, definitely well deserved. The Tass master gave us a quality start and kept us in the game in game two but, unfortunately, our bats couldn’t give him any run support. Also found out this past week that Tass is a Major League Bowhunter! (check pic) What a stud!

Although it was a tough loss in game two, we had a quick turnaround the following day and still had the opportunity to win the series, which is always the weekend goal. And boy, did the team respond to the challenge. The bats were sizzling!! There should have been a fire extinguisher in our dugout to cool off our bats! We were just spinning balls all over the field. It all starts with Drewpy dropping bombs! Kid has light tower power!! Solberg was banging doubles off the wall! Meeteer was running around the bases like he was on the track team! Man, it was just a lot of fun that day. Nothing better than when your team is clicking on all cylinders. Schneider gave us a quality start as well. He really made some big pitches that limited Wright State from cutting into our lead. There were multiple times where there were runners on and it would be a 2-2 or 3-2 count and Schneids would throw a dirty changeup or breaking ball to get us out of the inning! Clutch pitches! Great to see!

The team decided to have a frat theme bus ride to Dayton this weekend. Most of you probably saw the pic already, but here it is if you haven’t seen it. It seems like we have started a tradition and will have a theme for every bus trip now! Stay tuned to see what theme will be next!!

We had a great showing from Panther nation down in Dayton this past weekend! Thank you to all the family and friends that came out and supported. It almost felt like a home game because you guys were louder than the Wright State fans! Thank you for sticking it out in the rain and cold to watch us! We love you guys!

Paco thoughts… Haven’t even looked at a bracket yet but I like Indiana and Duke a lot… I really wish the USA would have all their players play in the World Baseball Classic… The Imagine Dragons have some chill music check them out… Follow us on Twitter @UWM_Baseball

Ok, here’s EK, byeeeeeeeee

It’s good to be back on the blog grind again. The last couple of weeks were pretty crazy and the blog was put on the DL for a bit. Going into Wright State this past weekend was a series that set the tempo for conference play. Being the first conference series, it was huge to pull out 2 of 3 games against a top team in the Horizon League at their place. The overall weekend was encouraging and fun to watch. Our pitchers were going into deep innings and balls were getting spun left and right. There are still a couple of small adjustments that need to be made but they will come with time and practice. It’s going to be a calm week of practice not having to worry about school, but our focus will need to be higher as we head into one of our biggest rival UIC.

The weather for UIC is going to be incredible! The sun is going to be shining with a slight cloud or two and a high of 36 degrees on Friday and Saturday. With snow making its way to Chicago Tuesday and Wednesday, the conditions could be a little shaky, but we need to look past that. This weekend is going to be a big challenge and not something we can come into lightly. We will need to swing the bats and have our pitchers come out with great starts, but most importantly getting our bullpen an identity. Coming from the pitching staff, that is one of our main focuses. We haven’t been pitching to our ability and that is something that will need to be changed in order to win the close games.

I again would like to congratulate Jake Long on becoming Horizon League Pitcher of the Week! Jake had a little accident the night before his pitching performance. The night before Jake was listening to music with a set of beats earbuds in when he decided he was done he realized the piece was stuck in his ear. Getting all sorts of worried, Jake had trainer Chad and Cale Tassi pulling on his ear while trying to pull in out with a tweezers. I can’t imagine how funny that looked, but anyway long story short they didn’t get it out that so Jake had to sleep with part of his headphones in his ear to have to go see the Wright State doctor in the morning to get it pulled out.

I would also like to claim one thing before I end this blog and that’s calling Big Fly Pearson’s second homerun. He came into the dugout after hitting his first homerun and said, “I’m sitting dead-red on a first pitch slider next at bat and hit that ball out of here!!” Hearing that there was no question in making the call.

To wrap this up, I can’t wait to see you guys in the Windy City of Chicago and I would all prepare to (literally) freeze. We’re looking forward to a great weekend of baseball and can’t wait to win another series! GO PANTHERS!!

"Welcome to Miami"

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their fourth entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

Well, that weekend didn’t go as we planned. Obviously. But, we gotta learn from it and move on. We learned a lot about our team this weekend and what it’s going to take to get to the next level.

The first two games we simply didn’t execute at all. In game one, another sluggish start killed us and we weren’t able to get anything going on the offensive side. Game two was similar. We started off kind of slow and were forced to come from behind again. To be honest though, our at bats were pretty good in game two, we just couldn’t get a two-out hit. Miami, on the other hand, was able to put innings together and get timely hits. That was the difference.

Game three we finally got out to a good start. EK did a great job of coming out and setting the tone on the mound. We were playing really solid ball for five innings. Executing pitches, playing small ball, making plays. But in the sixth, we gave up a big inning and that ended up killing us. That’s the one thing we really emphasize is limiting the big innings. We've got to avoid crooked numbers. One thing I am happy about though, is that we didn’t just fold at the end of the game down three runs. We battled against their closer and got the tying run to third base.

It’s time to get back in the gym and prepare for a cold weekend in Evansville. Got to find a way to get better this week.

That’s enough baseball talk and now I can tell you guys about what we did in Miami while we weren’t on the field. The weather was nothing short of perfect. Low 80’s and sunny pretty much all day, doesn’t get much better than that. The majority of us found a way to get down to South Beach and check out the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of us enjoyed getting burnt in our short time at the beach. That didn’t feel too good the rest of the weekend.

Doesn’t that beach look so much better than the white stuff we’re getting???

On Saturday, I checked out Marlins Park with the Peake’s and Koenig’s. We ended up taking a tour and got a behind the scenes look at the stadium, if you want to call it that. From the outside it felt more like a museum than a baseball stadium. On the inside, there is a lot of distractions, almost too much going on to be honest. I see why during the game much of the seats aren’t full. It’s because there is so many other things you can do during the game. There are all these bars, nightclubs and other attractions. There are TV’s everywhere you walk, so it’s not like you’re missing the game. They even had them in the bathrooms.

Once again, thanks to all the family and friends that came down. You guys travel well! Thanks to everyone back home who followed along. Stay with us!

Paco thoughts… One of the funniest moments of the trip was on Thursday night at Chipotle. We finished eating and were lingering around a palm tree debating whether we could climb up it or not. Yea, we have conversations like that. Then we realized a gazillion ants were on the ground getting all over our shoes. Guys freaked out and were running away. Then here comes Mitch Ghelfi and in a high-pitched voice he yells at the ants “Scram, get outta here!” Ok, I guess you had to be there but it was hilarious and gave us a good laugh. Another funny moment was during the game on Saturday night. In between the first inning we ran out onto the field to warm up. Pat Wilson, our first baseman, was approaching first base where, at the cut of the grass, he tripped and fell right on his face. SNIPER!!! I saw the whole thing and couldn’t help but laugh. The best part about it was the whole Miami dugout saw and gave it to Patty. They’re lucky they didn’t learn who KO Pat was… Sitting in between two strangers on a plane is really uncomfortable… It gets even more awkward when you have the flinch of your life while your taking a nap.

Here’s a photo from last weekend. Looks like Scotty forgot what team he coaches…

Time to catch up on homework, sleep, laundry and a bunch of other things before this day ends… Here’s EK...

As every week, I would like to start out by thanking all the family and friends who made the trip to Miami to support us. We really do appreciate all the support we get when weekends don’t go our way.

This weekend didn’t go as planned, but we learned a lot. We didn’t execute at-bats or pitches when we really needed too, which resulted in us losing games. One of the biggest things our team should have learned this weekend is how good we really are. Our ability and talent truly is there and we just need to find that inner edge to ourselves to allow us to make that extra-effort play. We have all the tools to compete with any team out there. With a little more practice and trust in our teammates, weekends will be a little more fun and exciting because we will come out winning the series.

This upcoming weekend is going to be a test to see how we can overcome some adversity. For one, we will be coming off of a series where we really didn’t play to our level, and then to go to Indiana where the weather isn’t going to be inviting. Evansville is going to be in the mid 30’s all weekend and that isn’t always the best, but it’s something we need to look past. Conference is slowly approaching and we need to be settled into our roles in order to succeed.

On a better note, it was great to get out of the cold and get into the nice warm sun. With the games being a little spread out, many of the guys got to experience the beach while other just stayed back and hung out by the pool. One of the greatest times of this weekend was the bus trip to Midway Airport in Chicago. Seeing that the entire team made the trip, we decided it be fun to have the freshmen go to the front of the bus and do interviews over the microphone. Each guy had to say their full name, where they are from and something interesting about themselves. But, after those were answered the floor was open. Questions were flying in every direction and there wasn’t ever a dull moment.

Personally my favorite of the trip was redshirt freshman Jonathan Nick and, for that, he fell victim to the first player introduction/embarrassment. Jon is a redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher who came from West Bend West High school. He wears number 29 on the field and, I tell you one thing, the kids got jokes. If you want to get a good laugh just hang around Long Jon Silver or JNip. Just a couple of nicknames we have assigned him. While Jon was upfront of the bus he calmly answered the questions honestly, but we all had something we wanted him to do. One Christmas Eve, Jon performed a "Single Ladies" dancing performance with his family so we had him do so on the bus.

If you would like to view his performance go to this URL … things start to get really interesting around the 1:00 minute mark: YOUTUBE LINK

Each week from now on, Paco and I will be selecting a player to sit down and ask a couple questions. Some interviews may be pretty interesting, so stay updated if you want to find some deep secrets.

To keep you updated on Mrs. Blohowiak I was talking to Greg on the progress this weekend and the news keeps getting better. For those who didn’t read the blog last week, she is in the hospital with TENS. She is slowly recovering and getting stronger each day. With high hopes there is a chance that she could leave the hospital sometime this week and return home. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers in hopes that she recovers fast and stays healthy. <3

Hope to see you all in Evansville and make sure to bring your winter gear. Go Panthers!

Who Needs Practice Outdoors?

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their third entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

What a long weekend that was...

When it was all said and done, we spent roughly 23 hours at a baseball field in three days! But it was so much fun! Thank you to all the family and friends that made the haul to Las Cruces to cheer us on. It’s always great to see familiar faces on the road. Makes you feel at home a bit. Thanks to everyone back home who followed along online. We appreciate all the tweets you guys sent us. Your support is much appreciated.

As most of you know, if not all of you, we ended up splitting the four game series with the Aggies. I’m assuming most of you know what happened, so I’ll quick summarize the weekend.

It started early Thursday morning with a 6:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix, AZ. We left the Klotsche at 5 in the morning. I was never so excited to wake up that early in the morning, and I had no problem getting up. While at the airport, we ran into a little dilemma. The security line was backed up and moving at a slow pace. As 6:30 was approaching and the majority of us were still in the security line, some of us started to worry we were going to miss the flight. But, we found a way and made the flight just in the knick of time. Then we faced another obstacle once we all got past security. The flight was full and one of us was going to be left stranded in Milwaukee. The Southwest flight attendants asked if any of the passengers would be willing to give up their seat so we could have our whole squad. Thankfully, a generous lady gave up her seat so we didn’t have to leave anyone behind. Big shout out to her!

We landed in Phoenix and then made a short connecting flight to El Paso, Texas. We then bussed to Las Cruces. We stopped at a mall where we grabbed some grub and a few of us snagged some pretty sick hats from a store called Mr. Hats (see pic).

Later that day we practiced at New Mexico State’s field to get used to the lay of the land. Pretty big field, but the ball travels much better than it does back home thanks to the thin air. During this trip we faced all sorts of obstacles. Freshman Justin Langley made the rookie mistake of forgetting the baseballs back at the hotel. Who would of thought you need baseballs to practice? What a rook!

On Friday, we were like little kids on Christmas morning. The season was finally upon us! Game one didn’t go our way as we lost a tough one in extras, but we bounced back nicely in the nightcap as we blew them out 11-0. After the huge bounce back win we were feeling really good about ourselves and looked to carry that momentum into Saturday. We did just that in game three, winning in comeback fashion. Unfortunately, we lost game four and couldn’t complete our goal of winning the series.

Considering it was the first time we were outside since October, we have to be pretty encouraged with the way we played. The defense on Friday was great. Guys were making plays all over the field. The pitching was there as well. Holding that offense in that climate, to three runs in two games is impressive. Day two we weren’t as crisp on defense or on the mound. In game three, we didn’t make plays for Thicke and that put him in a tough situation and put us in a hole. But, we didn’t give in and chipped away at their lead and found a way to get a W.

Winning two games was nice, but each of us knows we should have won that series. We didn’t take advantage of some opportunities in game one and that ended up hurting us. We came out sluggish in game four and dug too big of a hole for ourselves. We have to clean that up.

Like I said though, there were a lot of positives throughout the weekend. The bats overall did a pretty good job. Did we strike out a little too much? Yea, probably and we’re going to have to improve on that, but balls were flying around the field all weekend. Especially Willy Fadness. Dude was dropping bombs and came up with a lot of clutch hits.

Trust me, we are only going to get better as the season goes on and this is a positive start. It’s time to get back in the gym, work hard and get ready for a big series in Miami. We’re not going down there just for the weather. We’re going down there to get W’s and win a series.

At some point this week we’ll release some video to show you some behind the scenes footage from this weekend. You’ll find it on our twitter.

Go Panthers!

Paco Thoughts… Happy Birthday to the living legend Cole Kraft who I’m sitting next to on this flight back to the Mil… To the girl in the stands who asked me if I’ve hit puberty while I was up to bat, the answer is yes I have. You obviously didn’t get a chance to check out my stache… Our parents are the best in the nation and we love having you guys on the road with us!

Here’s the King…

Well the last day of our endeavor in New Mexico didn’t go as planned. To start out we woke up just a pinch too early in the morning after a long past two days of playing. We were told we were going for a little ride before heading to the airport. Let me mention this was the first time we went on a secret getaway. Some of the guys were a little upset that they couldn’t sleep in, but once we arrived to the White Sand, eyes were surely opened. Whites Sands National Park is the world’s largest park that features sand dunes. I know, I know, you may be thinking 'what would a baseball team be doing at White Sands National Park?'

The answer is truly nothing, besides looking at sand, which was actually pretty cool. That was about all that was cool for the day.

As we departed from the sand box, we went through miles and miles of jack squat. So we taught the rookies on the squad a few of the games we play on the road, but that got old real fast. To all the parents out there reading, yes, most of the team actually worked on their homework.(student-athletes).

While pecking away at our homework, we realized that we had gotten off the straightest road in the country. As soon as we turn off the off ramp the bus had turn off as well. Rumor has it the bus was bored just like us so it decided to pull over, sorry terrible joke! So we realized that we are about three miles from the airport, we haven’t ate and we have a broken down bus. Magically, after a little time the bus cooled off and we were on our way. We made it to the airport with about a half hour to spare.

The team finally gets loaded into the warmest, fullest plane in the country. The good ole chief flying the bird realizes there happens to be a large fuel leak. So there we are on the warmest, fullest plane in the country with the largest fuel leak in the country. We all got off the plane. After an hour or so wait we were on our way. Excitement on and off the field.

Notable Events to the Weekend: A group of us purchasing large hats so the sun didn’t beat on us. Cappy being sniped after scoring a run. Justin Langley “No one nose” what he is doing. Mike Schneider threw a gem and a half. Great plays from AL, Paco, and Meeteer with an unreal full layout catch. We also said good bye to our athletic trainer, Will, as he moves his career to the Seattle Mariners minor league team. He will be truly missed.

Again I would like to say thank you to all the fans and supporters that came to New Mexico and cheered us on, and also to the people following online. We really appreciate all the support.

For some of you that may not know already former Panther player Greg Blohowiak’s mother is in the hospital with TENS. She is slowly recovering and making strides each and every day to get better. As a Panther family we should all keep his mother in our hearts and prayers for a fast and health recovery. <3

We have a tough week of practice ahead of us to prepare for Miami. We have to keep making strides and improvements in order to bring home more W’s. Hope to see you all at the U for some great baseball and warm weather.

Off to New Mexico...

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their second entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

Que pasa nacion pantera? (Translation: What’s up Panther Nation?) I’m just brushing up on my Spanish before we head to New Mexico this week. They speak Spanish there right? I think they do.

What a great time it was at our Bowling Event! It’s a blast seeing all the family, friends and supporters come out and show how much they love the program. Your support does not go unnoticed and we can’t explain how much we appreciate it! Without you guys we are nothing! Thank you to all the sponsors and a huge shoutout to Krueger’s for allowing us to use their place for a day! Big ups to Flip for being the brains behind the event and making it another success!

There were some quality bowlers that showed up. I apologize for not knowing the name but in the first session a 298 game was rolled. In the second session, our very own head coach Scott Doffek was perfect heading into the 10th frame. After calmly getting strikes on his first two balls, Scotty folded under pressure missing right and finishing the game with a 296. Quality effort. He might have been thinking about the result instead of just sticking to the process, we’re going to have to discuss that this week with Scotty.

Alright, time to talk some baseball! Pretty crazy to think we are a few days away from the season opener. This past week I felt like we had great energy in practice. Without a doubt we made improvements from the first week of practice. It’s a great sign and we get to continue to improve as the year goes on. That right there is really the goal. To get better every day.

We hope all of you in some way can follow along while we are in New Mexico. I’m pretty sure Gametracker will be available and possibly some live feed. Just a reminder, we are playing two doubleheaders, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Games start at 3:05 central time both days.

I can’t wait to step on the field and go to battle with my brothers. There really is nothing better. This is going to be a fun ride, and it’s time to go out and represent Milwaukee baseball! Go Panthers!

Paco Thoughts… S/O to EK’s dad Tom for bowling despite battling some tendinitis…Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @UWM_Baseball… J.J. Redick to the Bucks? I wouldn’t mind… Big thank you to Will George, our athletic trainer for the last year and a half. New Mexico will be the last time he is with us. He got a job with the Mariner’s Rookie ball team and will be heading to Arizona after the series. Thank you Will for all the long hours you put in, all the massages, and all the ice bags made. Thank you for being a great trainer and a great friend. You will always be apart of the Panther family and we wish you the best of luck!

Here’s my boy EK…

Thank you again to all the family and friends who came out to support the Panthers at our annual bowling event. It was a lot of fun and it was great to have all the families interact before we start the season out.

Not only was there some great bowling going on, but there was some great athletic movements. To start out, I would like to give a personal gamer shout out to former Panther Paul Hoenecke for setting the new high score on the basketball shootout by making 93 points (31 baskets) in 60 seconds. That’s just being a gamer! The second athletic movement will be going out to Gunnar Eastman for bowling a great game left handed and get an incredible speed of 1.13 mph down the lane while knocking down 4 pins. The most athletic movement of day will definitely have to go to Brooks Bigler. He is young in the running’s, but after he fell into the table while eating popcorn he celebrated by pouring an ice cold green slushy all down his shirt and pants.

To restate what Paco was saying before, the last weeks have been some of our best practices we have had this year. It has been crisp and focused each and every day before we ship out to battle New Mexico. Although they are known for their fast infield and powerful bats, we have been preparing to slow them down in all ways. Whether it’s fielding balls for hours on end to dry pitching drills to repeat mechanics, the team is ready to get out of the dry, stuffy k-dome and get out on the field.

The team has come up with the great idea of growing manly mustaches. For some of the boys, dying the mustache will need to be a necessity, so redshirt sophomore pitcher Gunnar Eastman has already purchased some hair dye for a mustache-dying party on Tuesday night. Everyone and anyone is invited just bring your mustache and look for the location on the Panther twitter. I encourage all fans coming to New Mexico to have a mustache.

This is a very acceptable mustache. I hope to see you all in New Mexico! GO PANTHERS!!!!

Baseball is Back!!

Sophomores Michael Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his second season of blogging, while King gets his first crack at it. Today is their first entry for the 2013 season.

***********************************************

PANTHER NATION!!!!!!!! It’s your boy Paco back for another season of blogging. Man, it’s been way too long! I hope you guys haven’t missed me too much! I’ll tell ya one thing - I’ve missed writing these blogs every week and can’t wait to start writing for you guys every week!

Unfortunately, we do have some sad news to announce. This season we will be without the services of veteran blogger Greg Blohowiak. Blow was a part of this blog from the beginning and his insight will be missed!

But, there is some good news!! Redshirt sophomore Eric King will be joining the blog this year. You guys are going to love what EK brings to the table. I’m really excited he accepted the invitation to join the blog. I’ll let him introduce himself later.

I’m really excited for this season. And there’s a lot to be excited about! We had a really encouraging fall season. The intersquad games were close and competitive. I think that shows this team is balanced and has guys that are hungry to get on the field. The talent this team has is pretty impressive. I think the showing at our scout day in the fall proves that. Milwaukee baseball fans and Panther Nation should be encouraged about the direction this program is going.

This off-season has been much different than my first two years here. We really hit the weights hard with Captain Ron and his staff in the weight room. And we’re still going at it! This is going to pay off tremendously as the season goes on.

We started team practice this past Monday in the K-Dome. Things have been going well. With the season about two weeks away, it’s important for us to focus every minute we are in there practicing. Paying attention to detail is something we are really stressing. We don’t want to be average, we don’t want to just make a play, we want to practice perfection. Is perfection possible? Probably not, but there’s no reason our effort and focus shouldn’t be there every minute of every practice.

This year we have a lot in store for you guys. Not only will we be blogging, but we are going to do a lot of behind the scenes footage when we are traveling, so you can see what it’s like while we are on the road. We’ll do some player interviews as well.

We just got an instagram so make sure you go follow us @UWM_Baseball. Trust me, there’s going to be plenty of funny pics posted!

Remember to follow us on the tweeter @UWM_Baseball and hit that like button on Facebook!

Alright, that’s enough of me. Here’s The King…

Hey look here Jack, this year is going to be a humdinger! To start off, I would like to say welcome to all the new families and supporters of UWM. We look forward to seeing you at the always beautiful Henry Aaron Field (The Hank) cheering the panthers on.

A little something about myself before I begin… As Paco mentioned before I am a redshirt sophomore and part of the pitching staff. Most importantly, I have beautiful flowing hair and a very complementing mustache to go along with it. Coming off of an injured freshman year and a recovery sophomore year, I look forward to being a fully healthy addition this season. I’m very excited to be blogging this year and look forward to letting Panther Nation get to know more about how we are as a team behind the scenes and off the field. We have some great ideas in store for the blog to let the parents and fans of UWM see just how fun and exciting our lifestyle is.

Getting to the pitching staff now, we are a very young and talented group. With the incoming freshman and returning redshirts, it’s going to be exciting to see the roles and maturity of our pitching staff get better each weekend. For some, the fall was the beginning of a new career and picking up where they left off for others. First-Team All-League honors senior pitcher Cale Tassi is set to have another outstanding year. Being announced the Friday night starter, Tassi begins the year with high hopes of becoming one of the best pitchers in the Horizon League. Having a player like that on our staff sets a standard for all pitchers on our team, and that showed during the fall. With high intensity and competition during practice, we are getting ourselves prepared for the season opener in New Mexico. As I mentioned earlier, it will be a very exciting year not only for the pitching staff, but for a team as a whole.

This year we have a lot in store for you guys. Not only will we be blogging, but we are going to do a lot of behind the scenes footage. One thing I would like to do is show pictures of all the fields and trips we take. Knowing that I will not always be able to get the best of pictures, I am hoping that some of the parents on the team would be willing to take pictures and send them to me at kinget@uwm.edu. This way, fans and supporters of UWM will be able to enjoy the sights we get to see. Also each week we are going to be singling out a player or two to introduce them by interview and maybe release a little embarrassing information they don’t want others to know.

I’m looking forward to a fun and successful season and it will be great to see all the supporters of Panthers Baseball!