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Baseball Home Opener Slated For Friday Against Cleveland State

Panthers host Vikings starting at 2 p.m.

April 8, 2008

After playing the first 27 games of the season on the road, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team finally gets to open the home portion of its 2008 schedule, hosting Cleveland State at Henry Aaron Field this weekend. The Panthers and Vikings open the home slate Friday at 2 p.m. before playing a noon doubleheader Saturday. UWM will also make a midweek trip back to Illinois, playing Chicago State in a doubleheader Wednesday starting at 3 p.m.

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UWM leads the all-times series with Chicago State by a 34-10 count, with the .773 winning percentage marking the highest that the Panthers hold against any opponent. UWM took three of four games played between the teams last season, outscoring the Cougars 33-7 in the three victories.

The Panthers are 44-15 all-time against Cleveland State, with those 44 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 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
Chicago State is currently 3-25 overall, but will play Northwestern Tuesday before hosting the Panthers Wednesday. As a team, the Cougars carry a .217 batting average and an 8.97 earned run average. Their past three games have been losses, falling to Jackson State Sunday (11-9) and also dropping a pair to Southern over the weekend (9-2 and 8-3).

Chris Goya leads the offense with a .400 average, with Josh Applebaum next at .288 with a team-high six home runs and 21 runs batted in. On the mound, Michael Storrs carries the best ERA at 3.65, striking out nine batters in 12 appearances.

Cleveland State dropped three of four games last week, and is 9-12 overall and 3-3 in league play after beating Eastern Michigan Monday. CSU fell 9-8 at Ohio on Tuesday before losing two of three at home to Wright State over the weekend. All four of CSU's games were decided by one run last week. The Vikings are 1-5 in one-run games and 3-3 in two-run contests this season.

Outfielder Kyle Bischof homered in each of the first three games last week, giving him round-trippers in five consecutive contests. The streak ended Sunday, when we went 2-for-4 with two singles. Bischof was 8-for-15 with seven RBI last week, including a three-run homer in the ninth inning to highlight a six-run comeback against Ohio. CSU rallied from an 8-2 deficit, only to lose in the bottom of the inning.

Viking starting pitchers pitched 25 of the 27 innings against Wright State, with lefthander Sam Suitca pitching a complete game on Sunday. Josh Hungerman earned the victory with eight innings of work in Saturday's opener, with Brian Long pitching eight frames in the nightcap.

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.

HARD LUCK CONTINUES
Milwaukee saw its hard-luck streak continue, as it suffered three losses to Southern Illinois on the weekend by a combined total of five runs. UWM actually suffered losses in walk-off fashion in each of the first two games of the series, ending in its eighth and ninth one-run losses of the season. Offensively, senior Nick Wichser led the way, collecting six hits in 16 at-bats with a homer and four RBI during the week. He also scored four times and raised his average to .358 on the season.

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 Wednesday, 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 is now 0-9 in one-run games.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON...
Senior Nick Wichser has been a force offensively for the past 17 games: he has at least one hit in all 17 contests and multi-hit efforts in 10. After starting the season 4-for-28, Wichser has recorded 30 hits in his last 67 at-bats (.448), scored 19 runs and driven in 17. Dating back to last season, he has now hit safely in 36 of his last 40 outings.

HART IN SELECT COMPANY
Senior Jesse Hart joined a select group with his base hit against NIU Wednesday: players to collect 200 or more hits in a Panther career. After a half-dozen hits last weekend, Hart sat at 199 in his illustrious career heading into Wednesday's 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. He also went on to add double No. 10 of the season on the weekend, giving him double-figure totals in two-baggers in each of the past three seasons. He now has 48 career doubles, moving past Reschke (47) into second place in that category (McCoy - 58).

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.

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 (14 of 35) on the season.

He has been on fire at the plate as well, including an impressive four-hit performance March 30 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 recently had a seven-game hitting streak end in which he batted .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 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.

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. 621, Jesse Hart			4. 204, Jesse Hart
5. 610, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)	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 continues its homestand with a doubleheader Tuesday against Bradley. Then, it's off to Ohio for four games on the weekend, taking on Cleveland State and Youngstown State. UWM will play a doubleheader Saturday against the Vikings before heading to Youngstown for a twinbill against the Penguins on Sunday.