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Busy Week Starts Tuesday With UWM Hosting Bradley

Games will serve as official home opener

April 14, 2008

After winning four of five games last week, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team heads into a span of six games in six days, playing three doubleheaders this week. The first will serve as the official home opener after last week's contests were moved to Les Miller Field in Chicago due to field conditions. The Panthers will now play their home opener at Henry Aaron Field Tuesday, hosting Bradley University for two games, starting at 2 p.m. Then, it's on to Ohio for the weekend, playing a pair of Horizon League twinbills on the weekend. Milwaukee will play at Cleveland State Saturday and close out the weekend at Youngstown State Sunday. All four games on the weekend will be available via Gametracker on the UWM website.

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Milwaukee leads the all-time series with Bradley by a count of 7-4. The last time these two teams squared off was the 2006 season, when UWM won a doubleheader by scores of 6-1 and 5-4. The first game Tuesday will be the 18th home opener in the NCAA D-I history of the program.

The Panthers are 46-16 all-time against Cleveland State, with those 46 wins marking the most UWM has against any opponent in its NCAA D-I history. The Panthers have won 11 of the past 12 games in the series, taking five of six last season - outscoring the Vikings by a total of 33-8 in a three-game series in Milwaukee a year ago. The Panthers took two of three when these teams faced each other last week in Chicago.

Milwaukee holds the 16-13 edge in the series with Youngstown State, with the teams playing an amazing eight times last season, including twice in the Horizon League Tournament. After the teams spilt the season series, 3-3, UWM won the ones that mattered the most, defeating the Penguins twice in the league tournament, 16-6 in the opener and 9-0 in an elimination contest.

The 2008 campaign marks the 44th season of baseball at UWM. It is also the 39th season of varsity play (the program was played at the club level from 1982-1986) and the 18th in the Panthers NCAA Division I era.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Bradley has been hot of late, sweeping a series from Southern Illinois to improve to 16-15 on the season. The Braves are coming off one of their finest seasons in program history, going 32-21 overall and taking third in the Missouri Valley at 13-11. The weekend sweep of SIU pushed BU over .500 for the first time since March 2 (3-2).

Jim Clayton leads the offense with a .345 batting average and has scored 12 runs and driven in 11. He is one of four regulars batting over .300, including Colby Luttrell (.345), Grant Escue (.333) and Dan Brewer (.324). Those three players are all tied for the team lead in home runs with three, while Luttrell tops the squad with 28 runs batted in. On the mound, the team carries a 5.98 ERA, with Rob Scahill leading the starters with a 4.20 ERA and a 3-2 record. He also has 52 K's in a team-high 49.1 innings of work. Reliever Kori Jensen had already set a season record with six saves, earning three wins in his 13 appearances.

Cleveland State is now 12-14 overall and continues its busy mid-season schedule with seven games in six days this week, beginning with a 6:00 p.m. contest against Kent State on Tuesday. CSU will then travel to Niagara on Wednesday before returning home to host five games at The Pipe Yard this weekend. CSU was in action six times last week, posting a 4-2 record, including a three-game set with UWM. The strength of the Vikings during the first half of the season has been its starting rotation. Lefthander Josh Hungerman (2-2, 5.09 ERA, 40.2 IP, 32 SO) and righty Brian Long (3-2, 3.56 ERA, 48.0 IP, 30 SO) have anchored the staff with each earning Horizon League Pitcher of the Week honors once this season. Southpaw Sam Suitca (1-5, 4.68 ERA, 42.1 IP, 16 SO) is CSU's third starter.

Youngstown State is 12-20 after taking two of three from UIC last weekend, including 5-4 in Horizon League games. It plays Niagara April 15, Ohio April 16 and Butler for two April 19 before hosting UWM to close out the weekend. Joe Iacobucci is hitting a team-best .315, followed closely by Anthony Porter at .302 and Sean Lucas at .302. Lucas has also scored a team-best 17 runs and driven in a team-high 21. All-leaguer Erich Diedrich has returned from injury and is batting .333 in 16 games.

On the mound, Chuck Schiffhauer is 1-2 despite a team-best 2.85 ERA, while Aaron Swenson has thrown a team-high 50.1 innings and struck out 29. Closer Eric Marzec has two saves and 17 K's in 19.0 innings.

FOR OPENERS
The Panthers carry a 14-3 all-time record in home openers at the NCAA Division-I level. They had won 12-straight before falling to Butler, 5-2, in the home opener a year ago. The last defeat in a home opener prior to that was a 3-0 loss to Eastern Illinois in 1994. Furthermore, the Panthers are averaging nearly 10 runs a game in the past 13 openers, while allowing just four runs on average.

GREAT WEEK
Milwaukee had a great week, going 4-1 in five games, including three, one-run, victories. The bats did the talking, as the team hit .358 for the week with three regulars at .500 or better for the week. Senior Jesse Hart led the way, earning Horizon League Player of the Week honors with a .579 week (11-for-19) with nine runs scored and 10 driven in. Close behind was senior Nick Wichser, who hit at a .556 clip (10-for-18) with six runs scored and seven runs batted in. Also at .500 was sophomore Shaun Wegner, who collected six hits in 12 at bats and scored four times. On the mound, senior Adam Ferrell led the charge, earning a save and a victory in three appearances. He allowed just three hits in 6.0 innings of work, striking out four and walking just one.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON...
Senior Nick Wichser has been a force offensively for the past 22 games: he has at least one hit in all 22 contests and multi-hit efforts in 14. After starting the season 4-for-28, Wichser has recorded 40 hits in his last 85 at-bats (.471), scored 25 runs and driven in 24. Dating back to last season, he has now hit safely in 41 of his last 45 outings. His streak is now tied for the third-longest in program history, trailing only 32 and 27 gamers by Mike Goetz in 2006.

OOPS, WE STILL WON
The Panthers tied a dubious team record last Wednesday against Chicago State, making seven errors in a game to equal the team mark set April 21, 1991. The difference? UWM lost that game in 1992 to UIC by a score of 9-4, yet somehow managed to record a 10-9 victory over the Cougars on Wednesday despite giving up nine unearned runs.

HART CLIMBIMG THE LADDER
Senior Jesse Hart has been busy at the plate lately, raising his batting average 97 points in the past 12 games. He was batting .214 March 23 and is now at .311 after going 22-for-49 in the past dozen games, driving in 19 runs while collecting 11 doubles and two home runs. Also, with 16 doubles on the season, he now has double-figure totals in each of the past three years in that category and is on pace to break UWM season (23) and career (he has 54, record is 58 by Ross McCoy) marks for two-baggers.

HAIR-PULLING RESULTS
The three-straight one-run losses at UIC March 22-23 (9-8, 2-1 and 5-4) had been nearly unprecedented in the history of the Milwaukee baseball program since it went D-I for the 1991 season. Only one other time in history had the team lost three-consecutive games by one run each and it happened in that inaugural D-I 1991 campaign when it dropped a 6-5 decision to DeKalb March 26 before falling 3-2 and 2-1 to Southern Tech March 27 of that spring. To put that in perspective, that stretch of tough-luck decisions came over 875 games ago.

It took all of four games for UWM to have to go through a similar stretch, as it fell to Northern Illinois April 2, 3-2, before dropping 10-9 and 5-4 decisions at Southern Illinois on the weekend. Even more frustrating this time was that the losses all came in the final at-bat of the game each time. That has been the theme for UWM this year, as it dropped its first nine one-run games this season, but has regrouped to record victories in each of the last three such decisions.

OUR TURN
Senior Troy Vesling and sophomore Shaun Wegner have made the most of additional playing time this season, as each has already set career-highs, or is on pace, in numerous categories. Vesling has already established new career marks in at bats with 105 (was 99), runs with 17 (14), hits with 30 (25) and has already tied his RBI-total from last season with 18. He is also hitting .286 this year after a .253 campaign a year ago. After batting .277 as a freshman, Wegner is currently at .367 and is on pace to blow by last season's totals of 18 runs (he currently has 18), 26 hits (has 22), and 13 RBI (has 11). In addition, he has picked three runners off base and thrown out 15 would-be base stealers.

HART IN THE 200 CLUB
Senior Jesse Hart joined a select group with his base hit against NIU April 2: players to collect 200 or more hits in a Panther career. Hart sat at 199 in his illustrious career heading into the game at Northern Illinois before lacing a double in his first at-bat. Only Darin Haugom (245), Ross McCoy (220) and Charlie Reschke (213) have more.

LET THE LEAGUE GAMES BEGIN!
Milwaukee is happy to see the start of conference play, as it has posted the best record in Horizon League games of any team since 1995, UWM's first year in the Horizon League/MCC. In that time, the Panthers have gone 168-113 (.597), while posting a 6-7 record in league openers.

DOUBLE (PLAY) VISION
The five double plays turned by the UWM defense March 28 versus Butler set a new school record and came close to the NCAA record of seven. The former mark of four has been tied on many occasions, including against Northern Illinois on May 2 of last season.

ROUNDING THIRD ... AGAIN
The 42 runs against Butler March 28-29 marked the most-ever for UWM in a three-game league weekend series and also the most it has scored in any weekend league series since plating 45 in a four-game set versus Detroit back in April of 2001. It was also the most runs scored in three-straight games since plating 49 in contests against Akron (W, 20-12 & W, 15-9) and Western Kentucky (L, 14-13) in March of 2006.

WHAT? ME WORRY?
History for the Panthers proves that a slow start is not indicative of the way the rest of the season will go. Last year, the team finished 25-18 after a 14-game skid at the start of the season. In 2006, the team started 1-5 after its first six games before going 31-20 the rest of the way. In 2001, the Panthers went 39-18 overall after a 1-5 start. Lastly, and most impressively, they went 30-16 to finish 30-24 in 2000 after an 0-8 start.

HART ON SEASON-LONG MISSION
Senior Jesse Hart will look to put his name in the UWM record books in numerous spots over the course of his final season. In addition to chasing career records in several categories, he will also look to become the first-ever Panther to bat over .300 in each of his four seasons in a Milwaukee uniform. Charlie Reschke (2002-05) was the last senior in line to give it a shot, but batted .287 his final season.

Hart, a career .342 hitter, batted an impressive .371 in 35 games as a freshman in 2005, .315 in 55 games as a sophomore and .360 as a junior a year ago.

		CAREER RECORDS CHASE
AT-BATS				HITS
1. 737, Ross McCoy (2004-07)		1. 245, Darin Haugom (1997-2001)
2. 692, Darin Haugom (1997-2001)	2. 220, Ross McCoy (2004-07)
3. 683, Charlie Reschke (2002-05)	3. 215, Jesse Hart
4. 640, Jesse Hart			4. 213, Charlie Reschke (2002-05)
5. 610, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)	5. 197, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)

READY FOR BUS RIDES AND MOTEL STOPS...
The Panthers will be busier than ever while waiting for the snow to melt and Henry Aaron Field to be ready for them to play in Milwaukee. While that happens, they played 30-straight road games to open 2008, the most-ever to start a season in their NCAA Division I history. The previous record of 26 occurred in 2001. UWM will take it as a good sign - the team went 15-11 in those 26 games in 2001 and also had a nine-game win streak in that stretch.

The Panthers will have traveled more than 12,500 miles over the course of the first seven weeks of the season via plane or bus, visiting six different states (Florida, California, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana), including two trips to Indiana and four separate road trips to Illinois.

PRESEASON SHOWINGS
Milwaukee was picked to take second in the Horizon League season preview put out by www.rivals.com last month, one spot ahead of UIC and behind league favorite Wright State. Three players made its Preseason All-Conference Team: seniors Jesse Hart (at 2B) and Nick Wichser (OF) and junior Josh Groves (3B). UWM was the only team to have three players on the list.

The preseason issue of Baseball America featured its 2008 College Preview as well. The Panthers were slotted for third in its version, behind UIC and, once again, WSU as the top pick. Hart and Groves appeared on the Preseason All-Conference Team.

GROVES GETTING `PUB'
Junior Josh Groves became the first Panther to ever be named to the College Baseball Foundation Brooks Wallace Award Watch List in December. The Wallace Award is presented annually to the nation's top collegiate baseball player.

Groves had a breakout season as a sophomore in 2007, leading the team with a .396 average while earning All-Horizon League First Team honors as a utility player to earn a spot on the list, which had its inception prior to the 2004 campaign.

Groves is one of just four players from the Horizon League to make the list, joining John Koehnlein of Youngstown State and the Wright State duo of Justin Parker and Jeremy Hamilton.

DOFFEK IN THE MIX
Milwaukee head coach Scott Doffek established a baseball program record last year for wins by a first-year coach with 25 victories, breaking the former mark of 21. The mark for most wins by a head coach in his first two seasons? That would be 44 by former skipper Jerry Augustine, with 21 in 1995 and 23 in 1996.

BIG SHOES TO FILL
The Panthers will look to replace four team members (three position players and one pitcher) that all earned Second Team All-Horizon League honors a year ago. The trio of position players (Ross McCoy, Rob Brockel, Grant Berkovitz) accounted for 618 at-bats and a composite .306 batting average, 110 runs scored and 102 runs batted in. The pitcher (Robert Michalkiewicz) led the squad in earned run average, wins, games started, innings pitched, shutouts and complete games and was second in strikeouts.

PROFESSIONAL PANTHERS
Another summer of baseball meant another summer of former Panthers playing professionally across the United States. Mike Goetz batted .318 for the Helena Brewers, the Rookie League affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. He scored 28 runs in 46 games, recording 27 runs batted in and stealing 11 bases before getting called up to the Huntsville Stars at the end of the season. Ross McCoy signed as a free agent with the Utica Brewmasters in the New York State League in June. After the short state league season was over, he was promoted to the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association on July 21 where he batted .302 in 29 games, scoring 11 times, recording seven doubles, one home run and drove in 12 runs. Joe Nowicki started the season with Frederick Keys of the Carolina League, going 2-for-3 in one game before being transferred to the Aberdeen Ironbirds for the remainder of the season. There he batted .283 on the season, hitting .330 in July. Nowicki hit eight home runs and drove in 41 in 69 games en route to being named to the New York-Penn League All-Star Game. Ben Stanczyk was a Florida State League All-Star with the Brevard County Manatees, recording a 7-4 record with three saves in 43 games. He started four times, striking out 71 batters in 78.2 innings.

PRESEASON POLL
The Panthers were picked third in the 2008 Horizon League preseason baseball poll. They will look to improve on their third place finish from a year ago, when they had their season come to a close in extra innings just one game away from the league tournament championship.

Wright State was the top pick to win the league in the vote of Horizon League head coaches. The Raiders went 36-22 last year, falling in the league tournament championship to UIC. They received 34 points and four of the seven first-place votes. UIC took a close second despite having won its sixth-straight regular season title in 2007 and third tournament crown in that span as well, advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

1. Wright State (4) - 34 points
2. UIC (3) - 32 points
3. Milwaukee - 25 points
4. Butler - 17 points
5. Youngstown State - 14 points
6. Cleveland State - 13 points
7. Valparaiso - 12 points

ON TAP
Milwaukee continues a stretch of road games after it gets back from Ohio, heading to Iowa next Tuesday for a showdown with Big Ten foe Iowa. Then, it's back to Ohio for a weekend showdown with Wright State, starting with a single game Friday and then a doubleheader Saturday.