May 17, 2009

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team will open play in the 2009 Horizon League Tournament Thursday in Lorain, Ohio. The league office announced the tournament bracket earlier this evening after the final game of the regular season was played this afternoon. After sweeping Butler University Thursday and Friday, the Panthers found out they had earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament after Wright State dropped two out of three to Cleveland State over the weekend.

The Horizon League Tournament, presented by the U.S. Army, will be hosted by Cleveland State University and all games will be played at Pipe Yard Stadium.

Complete Tournament Bracket in PDF Format

As the No. 2 seed, Milwaukee will not begin play until the third day of the event. Its first game will be played at 2 p.m. CST Thursday, taking on the higher seed of the winners of games two and three in the tournament.

Play gets underway Tuesday, as No. 6 Youngstown State (16-34, 10-14 Horizon) battles No. 7 Butler (12-39, 6-20 Horizon) in the play-in game. Wednesday will feature two games, as No. 3 Wright State (29-27, 14-12 Horizon) awaits the winner of the YSU/BU affair and No. 4 Valparaiso (27-22, 12-11 Horizon) and No. 5 Cleveland State (20-29, 12-13 Horizon) are also set to battle.

Along with the Panthers (26-25, 14-9 Horizon), top-seeded UIC (26-21, 17-6 Horizon) begins play Thursday as well, taking on the lower seed of game two and three winners.

To follow all the action of this year's league championship, log on to www.horizonleague.org and click on the Baseball Championship icon. The championship page includes links to Gametracker for games in progress, along with complete summaries and box scores as contests are completed. Both Saturday affairs and Sunday's "if necessary" tilt will be shown live on the Horizon League Network (www.HorizonLeagueNetwork.tv).