Kicking It Off, 2014

Juniors Mike Porcaro and Eric King, members of the Milwaukee baseball team, will once again be blogging all season long on the UWM website.

Porcaro is back for his third season of blogging, while King gets his second crack at it. Today is their first entry for the 2014 season.

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Stay positive. The season is a long journey full of ups and downs. It’s important that we learn from this past weekend, work hard in practice this week and play better this weekend. We got to get better each time we take the field, and we have an opportunity to do that this weekend in Florida.

It’s funny, because right now as I type this, I’m watching the 30-for-30 film “Four Days In October” which is about the Boston Red Sox comeback against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. Perfect example why you always stay positive. The Red Sox lost three straight games to the Yankees and easily could of thrown in the towel. Instead, they took it one game at a time and grinded it out to make the best comeback in postseason history!

Is losing three games to start off the season disappointing? Yea, but there is so much season left. Baseball is a crazy game, as we all know. One day the game can have you feeling like you’ve figured it out and the next day can have you feeling like you just started tee-ball. The game humbles you in a hurry. We’re not going to let this hold us back. This team is going to be special, I’ll tell you that right now. I’m just looking forward to getting back to work and preparing ourselves for another tough test in Florida. It’s going to be a great opportunity against four quality teams.

Stay positive and keep believing Panther Nation!

Paco Thoughts ... I know it’s going to be a great season. Why? Because our first team meal was at Chipotle! Every day I shovel, I am reminded why I’ll be moving to Arizona or somewhere warm when I’m done with school. I think a lot of guys feel the same way after spending the weekend in the beautiful Cali weather ... Thanks to the parents and family members that made the trip to Cali, see you all in Florida!

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @MKE_Baseball!!!!

EK ...

Well it’s great to be back playing baseball at the U! As Paco mentioned, it’s early in the year and we need to stay positive! We’re using this last weekend in California as a learning curve. It was a great opportunity for returning guys to finally get back on the field, and even more important getting the new guys (the rooks) on the field to get a little understanding of the “next level.” Thank you to all the parents that made the trip and we look forward to seeing others coming to the games. Your support means a lot to us even when we may not always show it!!!

As I’m sure some of you can already imagine trying to have two coaches control 35 guys for an entire weekend gets out of hand. Trying to keep the emotions in check and generally keep your mind free can get hard at times (especially when the weekend doesn’t go as planned). This weekend, for instance, we flew into LAX and some of the older guys (vets) decided to play a little prank on freshman first baseman Blake Fleischman. We were all waiting for our bags to come out of the baggage claim when someone took his bag and hid it from him. Somewhat in a hurry to get to dinner and to the hotel before practice, we all were waiting outside for the bus to come. Blake on the other hand was frantically walking in the airport asking security and other airline workers if they have seen his bag - like they had any idea what it even looked like. This went on for a couple minutes until he finally came outside to hear we had his bag, and then off to dinner. All these pranks are just a little welcoming into the “U” and are never intended to hurt another player, unless they never say uncle!

Paco and I were thinking about trying to set up a video blog instead of these boring page and a half posts. An idea along the lines of a video you can re-watch of players getting interviewed, coaches getting interviewed, pranks getting played, indoor practices ... I think you get where I’m going. I think this would be a great way for you parents to really see what happens on and off the field, and maybe get a couple laughs. Feedback from you on this idea would be great! Again any parent who takes pictures at the games can feel free to email me an album at kinget@uwm.edu. It doesn’t have to be of just players it can be of the field places you saw on the trip etc.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!!