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Panthers Head Back To Illinois To Battle Huskies And Salukis

UWM takes on NIU Wednesday, Southern Illinois on weekend

April 1, 2008

As the calendar turns to April, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team closes in on the end of its season-opening 27-game road trip, heading back to Illinois twice this week for four non-conference games. The Panthers will play Northern Illinois in DeKalb Wednesday before traveling to Carbondale on the weekend for a three-game series with Southern Illinois.

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The Panthers and Huskies play one game at 2:30 p.m. midweek. Milwaukee and SIU are then scheduled to play one game each day this weekend, starting at 2 p.m. Friday. The two teams will also play a single game Saturday at 2 p.m. and close out the series Sunday at 11 a.m. All four games played this week will be available on-line via Gametracker.

UWM leads the all-times series with NIU by a 17-15 count, with the teams splitting a doubleheader after rain washed away one of the scheduled games in 2007. The Panthers lost a 10-9 decision and also posted an 11-1 victory last season. The Salukis lead the series with the Panthers by a 2-1 count, winning a three-game set when these two teams first played during the 2004 campaign.

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
Northern Illinois returns a veteran cast of 16 letterwinners from a record-setting squad that established school marks for Division I victories (going 34-24) and conference wins and finished third at the MAC conference tournament, one win from playing for the championship. The Huskies have started out the 2008 season with a 9-14 record, but had won six of seven games before getting swept at Bowling Green this past weekend by scores of 3-2, 4-3 and 4-1. They host Illinois State Tuesday before welcoming the Panthers to their home field.

The team is batting .276 through 23 games, with five regular starters hitting .300 or better. That list is led by Jeff Thomas, batting .341 in 23 games (all starts), while scoring 14 times and driving in 18 runs. Danny Reed is close behind at .330 and also has a team-leading 11 doubles and 25 runs batted in. Dave Reynolds is hitting .326 and has a team-high three home runs to go along with 18 driven in. On the mound, the squad has posted a 5.56 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 199.0 innings pitched. Adam Holdenrid is 3-2 with a 2.51 ERA in his five starts, while MLB draftee Dave Reynolds is 2-0 with a 3.21 ERA.

Southern Illinois was ranked in Collegiate Baseball's Fabulous 40 Preseason Poll for the first time since 1991 entering the 2008 season. The Salukis, picked 33rd, returned eight position starters and two starting pitchers from a team that went 34-22 overall and tied for third in the Missouri Valley Conference last season. They stand in at 13-10 currently, but will play Illinois Tuesday and Arkansas State Wednesday before hosting UWM on the weekend.

The team is batting .283 and also has five regulars batting over .300, led by Tyler Lairson and his .362 average. Brooks Wallace Award candidate and preseason all-MVC catcher Mark Kelly, a first-team all-MVC and American Baseball Coaches Association all-region selection last year, is batting .314 with a team-best two home runs and 21 runs batted in. On the mound, Cody Adams has a team-high 32 K's and 37.2 innings pitched, while going 2-2 with a 3.11 ERA.

FINAL SCORE: UWM 42; BUTLER 36
Milwaukee and Butler combined for quite the slugfest over the weekend, with the two teams totaling 78 runs scored and 103 hits in three games, with UWM winning the series two games to one.

The Panthers batted .410 as a team, with a list of six players batting over .400 in the league set. Sophomore Shaun Wegner led the way with a .714 clip, going 5-for-7 with four extra-base hits and five runs scored. Junior Ben Long was a one-man wrecking crew, pounding Bulldog pitching for three home runs and 12 RBI, recording seven hits in 14 at-bats, slugging 1.286 and scoring four runs. Senior Nick Wichser also hit well, batting .467 (7-for-15) with six runs scored and a home run. Junior Andy Gerhartz (.438), senior Jesse Hart (.429) and junior Josh Groves (.417) rounded out the list.

On the mound, juniors Brad Lusti (six K's in 7.0 IP) and Andy Hetebrueg (seven K's in 7.0 IP) both picked up victories, while freshman Cuyler Franzke posted a 0.00 ERA in two appearances during the offensive barrage, striking out two in 4.0 innings on the hill.

RED-HOT STRETCH
Senior Nick Wichser has been a force offensively for the past 13 games: he has at least one hit in all 13 contests and multi-hit efforts in eight. After starting the season 4-for-28, Wichser has recorded 24 hits in his last 51 at-bats (.471), scored 15 runs and driven in 13. Dating back to last season, he has now hit safely in 32 of his last 36 outings.

HART SET TO JOIN SELECT COMPANY NEXT HIT
Senior Jesse Hart will join a select group with his next base hit: players to collect 200 or more hits in a Panther career. After a half-dozen hits last weekend, Hart sits at 199 in his illustrious career heading into Wednesday's game at Northern Illinois. Only Darin Haugom (245), Ross McCoy (220) and Charlie Reschke (213) have more.

GUNNING `EM OUT
Sophomore catcher Shaun Wegner continues to throw out base stealers at an impressive rate this season. In his first eight starts of the year, he had already thrown out eight runners trying to steal out of the 21 (38.1%) who attempted to run on him. In the series at UIC, he threw out four of seven UIC runners trying to steal and is now at .400 (12 of 30) on the season.

He has been on fire at the plate as well, including an impressive four-hit performance Sunday that included three doubles and a home run. His three doubles tied the school record for two-baggers in a game and the four hits set a new career-high. He is currently on a seven-game hitting streak in which he is batting .550 (11-for-20) with six runs batted in. In league play, he leads the team with his .545 batting average and 1.091 slugging percentage.

DOUBLE (PLAY) VISION
The five double plays turned by the UWM defense in Friday's game 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.

DOCTOR "K"
Not only did junior Andy Hetebrueg register his first victory of the season against Butler Sunday, but he also set a new career-high with seven strikeouts, topping his former best of six set against Cleveland State May 5 last year.

LONG IN THE RBI BUSINESS
The 10 runs batted in during back-to-back games by junior Ben Long (Friday and game 1 Saturday) are the most in two-straight games for any Panther since Ross McCoy also had 10 during the 2006 season (two against UIC April 11 and eight versus Chicago State April 12).

ROUNDING THIRD ... AGAIN
The 42 runs against Butler 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.

The 24 hits March 28 were the most for UWM as a team since recording 29 versus Chicago State April 12, 2006.

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. A year ago, Larry Gempp's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave UIC a 9-8 victory over the Panthers.

CONSECUTIVE ONE-RUN LOSSES A RARITY
The three-straight one-run losses at UIC March 22-23 (9-8, 2-1 and 5-4) were not only hard to swallow, but were 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 has 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. That has been the theme for UWM this year, as it is now 0-6 in one-run games.

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.

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 will be playing 27-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 travel more than 12,000 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.

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. 213, Charlie Reschke (2002-05)
4. 610, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000) 4. 199, Jesse Hart
5. 605, Jesse Hart		  5. 197, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)

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 will make one final stop on its 27-game road trek to open the 2008 season, heading back to Chicago midweek for a doubleheader Wednesday. Then, the Panthers will welcome Cleveland State to Henry Aaron Field for the weekend, with the home opener set for Friday at 2 p.m.