May 27, 2002

MILWAUKEE - The UWM baseball team will travel Lincoln, Neb., and face the University of Nebraska in the NCAA Baseball Championship this weekend.

The Panthers (36-18) will open the tournament Friday afternoon at 12:05 CDT against the 13th-ranked Cornhuskers (42-18), who own two wins over UWM earlier this season. Southwest Missouri State (41-19) and Marist (40-12) are the other two teams in the regional and will play at 7:05 p.m. CDT.

The double-elimination tournament continues Saturday with games at 11:05 a.m. CDT, 3:35 p.m. CDT and 8:05 p.m. CDT. The title game Sunday would be at 1:05 p.m. CDT with a second game to follow if necessary.

Panther Baseball NCAA Tournament Fast Facts

* UWM will be making its third NCAA Tournament appearance. The Panthers went 1-2 in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, including a win over top-ranked Rice in the tournament opener. Last year, UWM dropped two games at the Notre Dame Regional, including a heartbreaking 13-12 defeat at the hands of UC-Santa Barbara.

* UWM won the Horizon League Tournament title for the second-straight time, becoming the first school to win the league (formerly MCC) title in back-to-back years since Notre Dame did it in 1993 and 1994. The Panthers have won eight straight league tournament games. In this year's tournament, UWM outscored its opponent 30-9 and scored 14 runs after two men were out.

* Dave Pudlosky was named the Horizon League Tournament Most Valuable Player after setting a tournament record for batting average by recording 10 hits in 14 at bats (.714). Geoff Lefeber, Quintin Oldenburg, John Vanden Berg and Charlie Reschke joined Pudlosky on the all-tournament team.

* Geoff Lefeber won two games at the Horizon League Tournament, including a 6-3 complete-game effort in Sunday's championship contest. In the tournament, Lefeber pitched 17 innings and posted a 1.59 ERA. He is 6-0 this season with a 1.97 ERA, placing him in the top 20 nationally for ERA.

* John Vanden Berg cracked a home run in the Panthers' first win of the tournament, a 7-1 decision over Cleveland State. The home run landed in the left field bleachers at Jacobs Field - the second home run Vanden Berg has hit in a major league stadium this year. He is believed to be the only Division I college baseball player to hit home runs in two major league ballparks this season. He leads the team with a .408 batting average, currently the third-best single-season batting average in school history.

* Since starting the season 4-10 against a difficult early-season schedule, the Panthers have gone 32-8. The run has included a school-record 13-game winning streak. UWM has hit .314 as a team since that 4-10 start, while Panther pitchers have posted a 3.46 ERA. Individually, Dave Pudlosky has hit .429 in his last 40 games.

* Senior Matt Freisleben has put together the best single-season by a UWM reliever in school history. Freisleben has collected a school-record 15 saves and is ranked third nationally in saves. He broke his own record for single-season appearances by pitching in 35 games so far and has now pitched in 113 career games. He has 18 career saves, the second-best mark in school history.

* Quintin Oldenburg added to his school-record totals for wins and strikeouts in tossing a complete-game five-hitter against UIC in the Panthers' tournament win Saturday. Oldenburg officially became the career leader in both categories while tossing a school-record 10 shutout innings as UWM collected a 1-0 win over Detroit on May 4. The senior right-hander allowed just six hits and did not walk a batter while striking out nine. He was named the Horizon League Pitcher of the Week for his work. He now has 239 career strikeouts and 26 career wins. He enters the NCAA Tournament 9-2 with a 3.49 ERA, tying his own record for wins in a season. No Panther pitcher has ever won 10 games in a season.