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Panther Baseball Looks To Rebound Against UW-Milwaukee, Bradley and Northern Illinois
May 6, 2008 Complete Release in PDF Format
THIS WEEK IN PANTHER BASEBALL Date Opponent Place Time The Panthers have lost their last six contests, the longest losing streak of the season. In its last Missouri Valley Conference action, UNI dropped a three-game series at No. 8 Wichita State. The Panthers, who have spent the season as one of the top offensive teams in the Valley, were held to just nine runs in the series. UNI hit .214 as a team on the week, 100 points lower than the team's average of .320 going into the series. UNI has five batters with an average of .300 or better, including Brandon Douglas who is hitting .395 on the season. Douglas is hitting .430 in conference action, and Dane Embury is hitting .400 against MVC teams. As a team, UNI ranks second in the MVC with a .310 average. The Panther pitching staff holds a 4.83 ERA on the season, and it is holding league opponents to 4.41 earned runs per game. Nick Kirk has the lowest ERA from the starting rotation, holding a 3.88 mark on the season. Relievers Tim Flattery and Derek Ott have 2.77 and 3.18 ERAs on the year. LEADING OFF... • Brett Featheston drew his 41st and 42nd walk in Sunday's game against Wichita State, giving him the UNI record for walks in a season. Featherston broke his own record of 40, which was tied with the mark set by Tom Bach in 1990. Featherston has the career record for walks, tallying 122 in his four seasons with the Panthers. • Brandon Douglas hit his 22nd double of the season on Sunday, putting him just one shy of the UNI single-season mark set by Tom Owen in 1995. He has 52 career doubles, five short of the record set by Todd Rima from 1995-98. • Tim Flattery and Derek Ott have combined to give up just two earned runs over the Panthers' last eight contests. Flattery and Ott have each pitched nine innings over that span. Flattery has struck out nine and walked three in his last five appearances, while Ott has also struck out nine and walked two in his last four outings. SCOUTING UW-MILWAUKEE Members of the Horizon League, the UWM Panthers are 7-12 in conference play and 16-29 overall (records will change as of Tuesday). Recently, the Panthers lost a three-game series to conference opponent Valparaiso 1-2 and the Panthers face Chicago State in conference action on Tuesday. Some notable wins for Milwaukee include a 3-2 series lead over Cleveland State, a two-game sweep of MVC opponent Bradley, and a 13-5 victory over Iowa. The Panther offense is led by senior outfielder Nick Wichser who is within the top 10 of nearly every batting statistical category in the Horizon League with more than 60 hits and 100 total bases. As a team, UWM is second in the Horizon in runs scored, hits, and RBIs. Defensively, the Panthers have struggled, leading the Horizon in errors and pitching losses. Their team ERA is 6.53. Junior right-hander Brad Lusti leads the pitching attack with an ERA of 4.83. Head coach Scott Doffek is in his second season with the Panthers. SCOUTING BRADLEY Bradley enters the weekend series coming off a 2-1 series loss against in-state and MVC foe Illinois State. The Braves hold a 25-21 overall mark, and their 9-9 conference record put them in fifth place in the MVC standings, two games back of the Panthers. The Braves are hitting .279 as a team, led by Colby Luttrell's .376 average. Dan Brewer is hitting .357 on the year, and Luttrell and Brewer each have six home runs on the season to lead the Braves. Starting pitcher Rob Scahill has a 4.74 ERA in 68.1 innings of work. He owns a 4-3 record, and he has struck out 66 while walking 29. As a team, the Braves hold a 5.65 ERA. Dewey Kalmer is in his 29th season as the head coach at Bradley. SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS Northern Illinois enters the week after dropping both games of a doubleheader against Central Michigan on Sunday. The losses ended a four-game winning streak for the Huskies. NIU is 21-23 on the year. NIU is hitting .285 as a team and has five regular players hitting .300 or better. Senior outfielders Jeff Thomas and Danny Reed are leading the Husky offense, hitting .346 and .329, respectively. The Husky pitching staff holds an ERA of 5.15. Reliever Dan Atkenson is 3-1 in 25 appearances, holding an ERA of 1.94. He has struck out 39 in 41.2 innings. As a team, NIU is giving up 9.7 hits per game. Ed Mathey is in his sixth season at NIU. In March he earned his 144th win at the school, giving him the most career wins in school history. QUICK HITS • The Panthers have had four different players have 10-game hitting streaks this season. Eddie Almonte, Brandon Douglas, Brett Douglas and Dane Embury have each hit safely in 10 or more contests for UNI this year. • Eddie Almonte has served as the Panthers' catcher for 339.2 of UNI's 363.2 innings this season. • The bottom half of the Panthers' lineup gave the Panthers the most offensive production at Wichita State. UNI's six, seven, eight and nine hitters (Brett Douglas, Travis Hendrix, Eddie Almonte and Cory Ege) combined for 14 of UNI's 21 hits in the series. YOU ONLY GET ONE UNI junior Nick Kirk has a knack for denying hitters extra-base hits. In his career, he has allowed 141 hits, and only 22 of those have been for extra bases. He has thrown 153.0 innings in his career, and he has yet to allow a home run. This season, in 55.2 innings he has given up 46 hits, just 11 of those - 10 doubles and one triple - for extra bases. BICENTENNIAL MAN Junior shortstop Brandon Douglas collected his 200th hit on April 22, becoming the sixth Panther to record reach that milestone. He is just the second Panther to reach the 200-hit mark in his third season. Travis Welsch, who holds the UNI career hit record with 295, recorded 210 hits through the end of his junior campaign. SHUTTING THE DOOR Senior reliever Joe Gonzalez has recorded seven saves on the year, tying him for third in the school record books for saves in a season. Gonzalez's seven saves also put him in a tie for fifth in career saves. Matt Cobb, who recorded 10 saves in his career (all of them in 1999), holds the record for both saves in a season and in a career. GETTING THE CYCLE Brandon Douglas became the first player since Aaron McEachran in 2001 to hit for the cycle when he accomplished the feat against Illinois State on April 13. The junior shortstop doubled in the first inning, hit a home run and a single in the third, then reached on a triple in the sixth. EASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE Chris Lopez hit three home runs in the Panthers' 17-3 win over Grand View on Wednesday. The senior hit the first two in back-to-back at-bats in the first and second innings. It was the first time a Panther has had three home runs in one game since Ryan Brunner accomplished the feat at Air Force in 2001. Lopez was one of three Panthers to hit a home run in the contest. BEAN COUNTER When Taylor Sinclair hit David Brumagin with a pitch in the fifth inning Sunday afternoon it was his 33rd batter hit by a pitch, giving him the career record at UNI. He passed the mark of 32 HBP set by Mike Irvine from 1992-95. Sinclair ranks sixth in the UNI career record books with 223.1 innings pitched. MAKING HISTORY Nick Kirk pitched the fifth no-hitter in school history when he blanked Evansville March 28 in the Panthers' MVC opener. Kirk struck out 15 in the win. It was the first no-hitter for the Panthers since 1995, and the first nine-inning no-hitter in the Missouri Valley Conference since 1990. PANTHER PROMOTIONS Tickets to UNI's Missouri Valley Conference games can be purchased for $3. Tickets are available for this price at the UNI ticket office or at the gate. TAKE FIVE Brandon Douglas tallied five hits in the Panthers' win over Evansville on March 29. It was the first five-hit game for a Panther since 2005. Douglas finished the day with three doubles, a triple and a single, and he drove in four and scored four runs. Douglas was 5-of-5 on the day with 10 total bases for a 2.000 slugging percentage.
HONORS FOR KIRK After throwing a 15-strikeout no-hitter against Evansville, Nick Kirk was named the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of th Week on March 31. He was also selected as a `Louisville Slugger's' National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball. InsidePitching.com selected Kirk's win as the Performance of the Week. FUN IN THE SUN UNI had a successful trip on its annual spring break trip to Florida. While playing seven games in eight days, UNI finished 6-1 on the trip. UNI dropped its first game, 8-6 to Eastern Illinois, but came back to win six straight, the Panthers' longest win streak since winning seven straight to open the 2006 season. UNI hit .342 as a team during the trip and averaged 8.7 runs per game. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE UNI slugger Brett Featherston is leading the Missouri Valley Conference in walks, drawing 39 so far this season. Fellow senior Dane Embury has drawn 20 walks this season, ranking ninth in The Valley. NOT ONE, BUT TWO GEMS Nick Kirk and Guido Fonseca combined to allow just six hits and one run in 14 innings two sweep Northwestern in a doubleheader on Good Friday. Kirk pitched seven-innings of shutout baseball in the first game, allowing just two hits while striking out seven in seven innings. Fonseca allowed four hits and one unearned run while pitching all seven innings of the second contest. A NICE RETURN After sitting out 12 games with an injury, junior center fielder Deric Manrique returned to the starting lineup against Central Connecticut State on Thursday. Playing as the designated hitter that game, he hit 3-of-4 with three runs scored, five RBIs, two doubles and a home run. He hit .500 on the week, going 5-of-10 from the plate with six RBIs. BREAKING OUT Chris Lopez had a break-out weekend at UALR, tallying seven hits, six of them for extra bases. Lopez hit six doubles in the series and two home runs, finishing the weekend with a 1.000 slugging percentage. FAST START Brandon Douglas got his junior season off to a blistering start. The preseason All-Valley shortstop went 11-of-16 in the series against Centenary, including four doubles. Douglas collected three three-hit games in that series. OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT The first play of the season proved to be a costly one for the Panthers. Preseason All-MVC selection Deric Manrique was able to run out an infield single, but he turned his ankle in the process. Manrique sat out the remainder of the Centenary series and will likely be out of action this weekend. FILLING IN After the injury to Manrique, redshirt freshman Levi Ferguson moved into center field and the leadoff spot for UNI. In his first game as the leadoff man, Ferguson went 3-of-4 from the plate and scored three runs. He hit .375 in the opening series for UNI, and he collected a hit in each of the Panthers' four games. PRESEASON HONORS UNI's Deric Manrique and Brandon Douglas were each tabbed to the preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference team. Manrique and Douglas were each named to the All-MVC first team last season. In 2007, Manrique led the Panthers with a .351 average, and he stole a league-high 30 bases. Douglas is a two-time All-Valley first-team selection. He led the Panthers with 19 doubles a year ago.
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