Milwaukee Plays Northwestern Before Starting Long HomestandApril 24, 2006
Game 36 Game 37 Game 38 Game 39 Game 40 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team will travel to Evanston, Ill., on Tuesday before opening an eight-game homestand starting Thursday. The Panthers will face Big Ten-rival Northwestern on Tuesday, Carroll College on Thursday and then welcome Wright State to Henry Aaron Field for Horizon League action on Friday and Saturday. Complete Release in PDF Format
Northwestern leads the all-time series with UWM by a count of 11-3 and have won the past two outings. The most recent match-up was a year ago, when the Wildcats slugged their way to an 18-6 victory. Milwaukee had won two of the previous three in the series before that contest. On Thursday, Carroll College and Milwaukee will square-off in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Carroll, an NCAA Division III team, was a late addition to the Panthers schedule after two games at Kansas State were cancelled in March. Wright State then comes to Milwaukee to finish the season series, having taken two out of three when the Panthers were in Ohio at the end of March. UWM still leads the series 28-22 after taking three of four during the 2005 campaign. The 2006 campaign marks the 42nd season of baseball at UWM. It is also the 37th season of varsity play (the program was played at the club level from 1982-1986) and the 16th in the Panthers' NCAA Division I era. THE WEEK THAT WAS The Panthers had a 3-1 week, highlighted by a big come-from-behind extra inning victory over first-place UIC on Tuesday. They finished the week with a trip to Ohio, where they took two out of three from Cleveland State. The offense kept hitting, as UWM batted .320 as a team, led by a .563 effort (9-for-16) from senior Mike Goetz. That raised his season average to .529, as he continues to pace the nation. He also extended his current hitting streak to 15 games. Others contributed offensively as well, as sophomore Jesse Hart batted .412, senior Matt Curran .357 and senior Zak Rivera at .353. Rivera's week included three home runs and seven runs batted in. SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION Northwestern will enter play on Tuesday with an overall record of 14-22, including 5-5 at home. The Wildcats have dropped four of their past six games, but did split a doubleheader with Penn State on the weekend. They swept a doubleheader by scores of 5-4 and 3-2 on Saturday and dropped 12-1 and 15-5 decisions on Friday and Sunday. Sophomore Antonio Mule paces the offense with a .375 average, six home runs and 27 runs batted in. On the mound, junior lefty Dan Brauer tops the club with 61 strikeouts, 60.0 innings and a 3.60 ERA while posting a 4-1 record. Carroll College will play a doubleheader on Tuesday against Lakeland College before coming to Milwaukee. They are currently 6-19 but have dropped 11 of 13. The Pioneers did split a twinbill with Lawrence on Sunday, winning 3-2 in 10 innings before falling 5-3. Matt Shafer leads the team with a .321 average, while teammate Chris Elliot tops the club with six home runs and 21 runs batted in. Wright State improved to 21-16 overall and 12-9 in the league after winning four of five contests last week. The Raiders took two of three from Youngstown State after mid-week victories versus Butler and Kent State. The Raiders continued their run of success at home, now standing at 14-5 at Nischwitz Stadium. WSU has outscored its opponents 120-67 in Fairborn, setting the stage for this year's League Championship at that facility May 24-27. Justin Wilson's 11-for-18 showing at the plate has moved him to seventh in the league with a .349 average for the season. Ross Oeder continues to lead the league with four triples and is seventh with a .429 on-base percentage, while Aaron Garcia shares the lead with 14 doubles. On the mound, Robert Barrett pitched eight shutout innings versus YSU, allowing only three hits. He is now 6-0 on the season and leads the Horizon League in victories and ERA (1.44). He has allowed seven earned runs in 43.2 innings this season, striking out 30 while walking only nine. Joe Smith has nine saves this season, six coming in league play. In 12 appearances against Horizon League foes, he has allowed no runs and only eight hits plus five walks while striking out 25. AS GOOD AS IT "GOETZ" The first NCAA statistical rankings of the season were released on April 11, and since then senior outfielder Mike Goetz has been at the top of the charts in batting average. After a 9-for-16 week (.563), Goetz is now batting .529, his highest mark of the season to date. At the time of the release last Tuesday, the Panther outfielder was the only Division I player above .500, and held a 45-point lead over Kellen Kulbacki of James Madison University. Not only does Goetz pace the nation in average, but his name tops the list in numerous statistical categories in the Horizon League as well. He leads in average (.529), runs scored (39), hits (74), doubles (14), walks (26), total bases (103), stolen bases (nine) and on-base percentage (.608), and is second in slugging percentage (.736). After starting the season with a 27-game hitting streak, he has another current streak of 15 games he'll take into play this week, making it 42 of the past 43 games that he has hit safely. Besides being red-hot, Goetz has been consistent as well. He has batted exactly .529 in Horizon League action (37-for-70) and exactly .529 overall (74-for-140). When you break down his average by inning, it looks like this: First inning: .536 (15-for-28), second inning .583 (7-for-12), third inning .529 (9-for-17), fourth inning .294 (5-for-17), fifth inning .455 (5-for-11), sixth inning .571 (8-for-14), seventh inning .737 (14-for-19), eighth inning .857 (6-for-7) and ninth inning .385 (5-for-13). POWER SURGE After a slow start, senior Zak Rivera has found his power stroke of late. On April 11, Rivera's average dipped to .197. Since then, it has been all good ... and all hits. Starting with a 3-for-6, five RBI performance at Chicago State, all Rivera done has put together an eight-game hitting streak that has raised his season average by 73 points. He has batted 14-for-34 (.412) in the stretch, including five home runs and two doubles. THE THRILL OF VICTORY When the Panthers defeated Cleveland State 16-0 on Saturday, they not only bounced back from a game one loss to split a doubleheader, but they produced their largest margin-of-victory of the season. The only other time UWM won by more than 10 runs this season was when they defeated Chicago State 26-12 April 12. To find a bigger margin, you would have to go back to the 2003 season when Milwaukee blew out St. Peter's (NY) by a score of 27-7 in Florida March 19 that year. NOW THAT'S HOW YOU SPELL RELIEF The Milwaukee bullpen has been fantastic of late, especially in the last week. In UWM's past four games, the relievers have combined to allow just one run in 14.2 innings of work - an ERA of 0.61. In that span they have combined to allow six hits while striking out 11 batters. Senior Jed Dolske has played a large role in the effort, as he has lowered his season ERA by over a full run in the past eight days (4.19 to 3.16) with five-consecutive scoreless outings. In his last 6.1 innings, Dolske has given up five hits and struck out four. He has provided Milwaukee with scoreless appearances in 10 of his last 12 outings. WELL-OILED MACHINE The Panthers offense has been impressive in 2006, as they lead the Horizon League in several categories. UWM tops the conference in batting average by 21 points (.323 to .302) over Youngstown State and also top the charts with a .401 on-base percentage, .494 slugging percentage, 87 doubles, 34 home runs and 137 walks. In addition to those totals, they are second in runs (250), triples (12) and runs batted in (230) despite playing fewer games than all but one league team. The squad has posted a record of 12-4 when scoring more than six runs and is 12-6 when out-hitting its opponent. 20 x 20 x TWO With a 26-12 victory over Chicago State on Tuesday, Milwaukee has now scored 20 or more runs and registered 20 or more hits on two occasions this season. Besides Wednesday's 29 hits and 26 runs, UWM also beat Akron 20-12 on March 18, collecting 27 hits in the process. WHAT A GAME! Junior Ross McCoy entered rarified air in the 26-12 victory, going a perfect 6-for-6 at the plate while driving in eight runs. The six hits tied Jason Weseman's school record (set 4/14/96) while the eight RBI equaled Todd Ludwig's standard set March 17, 1999. McCoy did most of his damage with the long ball, hitting a grand slam and a solo shot against the Cougars. BIG FAN OF HORIZON LEAGUE ACTION Milwaukee is happy to get into the midst of conference play, as it has posted the best record in Horizon League games of any team since the 1995 season, UWM's first year in the Horizon League/MCC and head coach Jerry Augustine's first season. Heading into 2006, the Panthers had gone 134-87, a .606 winning percentage. ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END After cruising past the old school record of 22 for hitting streaks, senior Mike Goetz finally ran into a team that kept him from getting a hit. Goetz went 0-for-2 with two walks against Wright State April 2, ending his amazing streak at 27 games. His final at-bat came in the ninth, where he walked to start a rally with his team trailing 2-0. He has picked up right where he left off, however, recording hits in the past 15 games and extending another streak to 43-straight games where he reached base safely. He batted .491 in the streak, finishing with 53 hits in 108 at-bats in the 27 games. The streak was the longest active in Division I heading into play the day it ended. The next longest was Gordie Grankowski of Jacksonville, who was at 23. The only streak longer than Goetz's 27 this season was a streak of 34 by Florida International's Brian Pullin. DOUBLEVISION With the season past the halfway point, four players still have a chance to break the Milwaukee single-season record of 20 doubles in a year. Senior Mike Goetz has 14, junior Ross McCoy has 13, while both junior Rob Brockel and sophomore Jesse Hart check in at 12. The school record of 20 was set in the 1999 season by both Steve Tylke and Chad Sadowski. .300 CLUB After the weekend, Milwaukee has seven regulars batting .300 or better, led by senior Mike Goetz and his .529 batting average. In fact, three of those seven players rank in the Top 10 in the Horizon League. In addition to Goetz at the top of the chart, senior Joe Nowicki (fourth at .356) and junior Ross McCoy (sixth at .352) make up 30% of the league's best 10 hitters to this point in the season. The other four players in the Milwaukee line-up are senior Matt Curran (.378, but not enough at-bats to qualify for Horizon League Top 10), sophomore Jesse Hart (.333), sophomore Grant Berkovitz (.305) and junior Rob Brockel (.300). WALK THIS WAY Senior Zak Rivera got off to a slow start average-wise in 2006, but his eye at the plate has kept him on pace to break the Milwaukee career record for bases on balls. His 20 walks this year have pushed his on-base percentage to .411 (10th in the Horizon League) and upped his career total to 86, giving him a chance at the UWM record of 99 walks by Jak Kraus (1992-96). EXPERIENCE COUNTS... To say the Milwaukee starting pitching staff in 2006 is experienced is an understatement. The Panthers return all five of their starters from a year ago in Aaron Sorenson, Rick Cavaiani, Korey Keller, Robert Michalkiewicz and Mike Rauwerdink. And, the experience doesn't stop there, as pitchers who accounted for all but 5.1 innings of 453.1 innings pitched by the team last year will be back in uniform this season. POLL POSITION The UWM baseball team has been picked to finish second in the 2006 Horizon League preseason baseball poll. Illinois-Chicago was the top pick to win the league in the vote of Horizon League head coaches. The Flames won the 2005 regular season title and defeated the Panthers in the Horizon League Tournament Championship to advance to the NCAA Tournament last season. They received 25 points and all possible first-place votes. Milwaukee finished second with 19 points, while Youngstown State received the other first place vote and 17 points overall. Wright State (14 points), Butler (10) and Cleveland State (5) rounded out the poll in fourth through sixth place. No. School Pts 1 UIC (5) 25 2 Milwaukee 19 3 Youngstown State (1) 17 4 Wright State 14 5 Butler 10 6 Cleveland State 5 BASEBALL AMERICA The Panthers were predicted to finish second in the league in the Baseball America College Preview issue that hit newsstands in January. UIC was picked first, with the rest of the league chosen in the exact same order that the coaches' poll resulted in. They also named a preseason all-conference team that included four Panthers. Seniors Joe Nowicki (OF), Zak Rivera (DH) and Aaron Sorenson (P) were selected to the team as well as sophomore Grant Berkovitz (SS). UIC was the only team to have more selections (6) on the 12-player squad than Milwaukee. ON TAP... The Panthers continue the eight-game homestand when they host Northern Illinois for a non-conference tilt on May 2. After that, they host Cleveland State for a weekend series May 6-7 as the regular season enters its final month.
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