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Seven More Games On Schedule This Week For UWM Baseball

Panthers close out homestand against CSU and MSOE

May 7, 2007

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team wraps up its 13-game homestand this week with three non-conference contests before making a trip to Ohio on the weekend. The Panthers host Chicago State for two games Tuesday and Milwaukee School of Engineering for one Wednesday night. Then, it's off to Ohio for a four-game set with Youngstown State Friday and Saturday.

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On Tuesday, Milwaukee welcomes Chicago State to Henry Aaron Field for a doubleheader scheduled for a 2 p.m. start. The Panthers lead the all-time series 32-10 after the two teams split a twinbill in Chicago earlier this season.

The last game of the homestand will be Wednesday under the lights, with the late addition of MSOE to the 2007 schedule. UWM and the Raiders - an NCAA Division III team - are set for a 7 p.m. first pitch. This marks the first time these two teams will play in Milwaukee's NCAA Division I era.

UWM will then play four games against YSU on the weekend, including one as a make-up from early April that was rained out in Milwaukee. The squads will battle in two doubleheaders, with Friday's getting underway at 2 p.m. CST and Saturday's at noon CST. The Panthers hold a slim 12-11 series edge after earning a split in two April games. Live stats will be available on the Penguins' website - www.ysuports.com.

The 2007 campaign marks the 38th season of varsity baseball at UWM and the 17th in the Panthers NCAA Division I era.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
CHICAGO STATE: The Cougars are 3-39 overall and lost two games to Kansas State, 20-4 and 10-0, their last time out May 1-2. CSU is batting .218 as a team with an 8.55 ERA. It is led at the plate by Alex Hall with a .289 average (1 HR/11 RBI) and Luke Grow at .265 (10 RBI). Chris Freshour leads the team in ERA despite a 1-9 record. He had UWM's number in April, limiting the Panther offense to one run in 7.2 innings.

MSOE: The Raiders, a provisional member of the Northern Athletics Conference at the NCAA Division III level, are coached by former Panther Troy Doering. Doering was a two-year letterwinner at UWM, earning First Team All-Horizon League honors in both 2002 and 2003. A team captain while at Milwaukee, he still holds the school record for stolen bases in a game.

The Raiders are 6-6 in their last 12 games after a rough start and are 6-25 overall. They hit .241 as a team with a 5.68 ERA, led at the plate by Michael Merk (.360/2 HR/14 RBI) and Kevin Curtis (.349/3 HR/20 RBI). Dan Gebhart carries the lowest ERA on staff at 2.70, while Lance Graham is 3-2 with a 4.19 ERA and 26 K's in 34.1 innings pitched.

YOUNGSTOWN STATE: The Penguins carry a 14-29 overall record into the week, slipping to 6-13 in league play after being swept at UIC. Youngstown dropped all six games to the Flames this season, including four one-run decisions and a fifth in which UIC rallied in the ninth.

John Koehnlein hit .556 in four games last week, and now leads the league with a .425 batting average this season. He is hitting .438 against league pitching and could become the first Penguin to finish the season over .400 since Kendall Schlabach in 2001. Koehnlein has a league-high 69 hits, needing only two more to break the school single-season record. He also has struck out only nine times in 204 plate appearances this year. Erich DIedrich is tied for the league lead with six home runs while ranking fourth in the circuit with 35 RBI and seventh with a .346 batting average.

YSU set season-highs for runs and hits (20 each) in Wednesday's 20-3 victory over Notre Dame College. The 20 runs were the team's most since a 29-run outburst versus Oakland on May 9, 2001. The Penguins also turned a triple play in the sixth inning, with shortstop Josh Page catching a line drive, stepping on second base to double off one runner, and throwing to first baseman Mike Turjanica to complete the play.

Koehnlein (9 K's in 168 at bats) and Sean Lucas (7 K's in 127 at bats) rank as the 14th and 17th toughest batters to strike out in NCAA Division I.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!
The Panthers got May off to a phenomenal start, going 6-1 in seven games last week. The bats came alive, hitting .373 as a team. UWM was led by senior Ross McCoy, who batted .520 (13-for-25), and junior Grant Berkovitz, who hit .483 (14-for-29) with 12 runs scored and nine driven in. Seven other regulars were better than .300, with sophomore Josh Groves at .583 (7-for-12) adding eight RBIs in four starts. The staff had a 2.95 ERA, with six different pitchers recording victories and eight hurlers with ERA's of 1.80 or lower.

LEAGUE NOTICE TOO
Junior shortstop Grant Berkovitz was named the Horizon League Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday. The award is a career-first for Berkovitz, who had an impressive seven-day stretch, batting .483 by recording 14 hits in 29 at bats to help UWM to a 6-1 week.

He raised his season average from .298 to .336 in the process, highlighted by seven hits in eight at bats in a doubleheader against Northern Illinois May 2. In seven games, he scored 12 runs, had two doubles, one home run, nine RBIs, a .655 slugging percentage and a .516 on-base percentage.

CROOKED NUMBERS CONTINUE
Milwaukee scored 10 or more runs in game two on Saturday against CSU for the fourth-straight contest (and for the fifth time in its past six outings). The offensive explosion marks just the third time in the past six seasons that the Panthers have scored 10 or more runs in at least three-consecutive games. They scored 20, 15 and 14 in mid-March a year ago and also crossed the plate 10, 26 and 10 times in early April 2005. In March of 2001, they scored 10 or more in five-straight, getting 14, 17, 12, 21 and 11 during a five-game winning streak April 19-22.

SO CLOSE TO BEING THE FIRST
Four pitchers combined to throw a one-hitter against Carroll College May 1. Sophomore Jordan Herbert (first three innings), freshman Zach Hoch (fourth and fifth), senior Rob Brockel (sixth) and junior Matt Holzheuter (seventh) combined on the outing, striking out seven. Only a triple off the right field wall in the fourth inning prevented what would have been the first no-hitter in the Panthers NCAA Division I era. Herbert got things off on the right foot for UWM, striking out four in his three innings of work. Hock had two strikeouts and Brockel whiffed one to give Milwaukee its first one-hitter since Mikel Schaefer one-hit Valparaiso April 5, 2003. There have been three no-hitters in the history of the program, while each occurred over 35 years ago:
1972: Ken Anderson versus Bradley
1970: Kevin King versus Whitewater
1967: John Klement versus Whitewater

HIT MACHINES
Junior Grant Berkovitz was in the zone last Wednesday, recording hits in seven consecutive at-bats in raising his average 35 points on the season. His 7-for-8 performance in the twinbill against Northern Illinois included four runs scored and four runs batted in. Not to be outdone, senior Ross McCoy pulled off the same feat Saturday, going 7-for-8 with a home run, three runs scored and an intentional walk in the league sweep of Cleveland State.

KEEPING IT IN THE PARK
The Milwaukee pitching staff has quietly done a tremendous job of avoiding giving up the longball this season, surrendering just 14 home runs in 42 games (347.2 innings), or just one every 24.8 innings pitched. To compare, UWM gave up 49 gopher balls in 2006, 43 in 2005 and 44 in 2004 for a rate of one home run every 10.1 innings in that three-year stretch.

DOING THE JOB IN RECORD-BREAKING FASHION
Senior Robert Michalkiewicz added another career record to his resume on Friday, throwing his league-leading fourth complete game to move into first place on the all-time innings pitched list at UWM. He now has 275.2 innings thrown in his career, breaking the record of 271.0 set by Andy Neary (1997-2000).

He also finished with two other UWM records during the end of April. First, he extended a school-record scoreless-innings streak to 22.1 (the old standard was 17.0 set by Aaron Bushong in 2001). Also, April 20 was the 43rd start of his UWM career, breaking the school record of 42 he held with Bushong (2000-04) and Chad Sadowski (1997-2000). Additionally, he had a streak of nearly five starts where he gave up no free passes, a streak that spanned 35.0 innings and 143 batters faced.

ONE FOR YOU; TWO FOR MCCOY
Senior Ross McCoy put his name in the UWM record books April 21, as his double in the seventh inning of game two against Cleveland State gave him 48 for his career, breaking the UWM school record of 47 held by Charlie Reschke (2002-05). He has since extended that number to 58 career two-baggers.

He is closing in on numerous career marks in the Milwaukee record book, as he has moved into second place in career games with 195 (record is 202), third in at bats with 676 (record is 692), into fourth in hits with 200 and has also broken into the top five in career RBIs with 125.

"WIX" IN THE OFFENSIVE MIX
Junior Nick Wichser made a big impression two weeks ago, collecting nine hits in 17 at bats to lead the team with a .529 average. In the four games he scored seven runs and drove in four. He also collected two doubles, a triple and a home run for a .941 slugging percentage to go with his .556 on-base percentage. He raised his season average from .223 to .267 on the week.

HART TO HART
Junior Jesse Hart is UWM's leading hitter so far this season, posting a .373 average through 39 games to climb back into the Top 10 (currently No. 5) on the Horizon League charts. It was actually up to as high as .386, but a hitless day April 29th ended what was an 11-game hitting streak. In the 11 games, he had nine multi-hit efforts and went 25-for-48 (.521) in the stretch. It was actually his second hit streak of 10+ games in 2007, as a 13-for-29 start after the first seven games of the year gave him a 14-game hitting streak. It began last season and was snapped March 10 at Austin Peay and had him at a league-leading .448 at the time. He had ended the 2006 campaign on a seven-game streak and hit .410 in the stretch, recording 25 hits in 61 at-bats.

LET'S GO STREAKING
Junior Jesse Hart may own the two longest hitting streaks of the season for UWM at 14 and 11, but there are others who are close, or getting there. Junior Grant Berkovitz had a 10-game streak earlier this year and an eight-gamer end Tuesday. Seniors Kyle Silver and Ross McCoy both have had eight-game streaks to their credit this year, while sophomore Josh Groves had a seven-game streak come to a close this week too.

HERBERT SLAMS THE DOOR
Although sophomore Jordan Herbert did not get credit for an official save in UWM's victory April 28, he sure slammed the door on Wright State. He came in with nobody out and a runner on base in the ninth inning and proceeded to strike out the side on 12 pitches, including the final two Raiders on six straight strikes. He had the same affect Saturday, striking out two of three batters on 16 pitches in a perfect ninth against Cleveland State.

He has been close to unhittable in Horizon League action this season, posting a 1-0 record and 0.00 ERA in six appearances. In 7.1 innings, he has allowed just two hits in 23 at bats (.087) and struck out 13 batters.

UWM RALLY INNING
Milwaukee may have lost to Northwestern, 10-7, on April 24, but rallied with three runs in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate when the game ended. That continued a season-long trend for UWM in the final frame, as the team has outscored its opponents 13-3 in the ninth inning.

"WALK LIKE A HETE-BERG-I-AN"
Sophomore Andy Hetebrueg tied a UWM game record April 24 by doing, well, literally nothing. He walked four times to equal the school mark last achieved in 1997 by Mark Rumpel (4/16/97). Strange but true, he came into the game with just two walks in 74 previous at bats in 2007.

CAREER-HIGHS ALL OVER THE PLACE
Two sophomores that have seen significant increases in playing time this season have already blown past many of their previous career-bests with the season entering the final month. Andy Hetebrueg has established new highs for at bats with 98 (was 49), hits with 28 (11), doubles with nine (3), runs batted in with 13 (12), total bases with 37 (14), will eclipse standards in batting average at .286 (hit .224 in 2006) and slugging percentage at .378 (.286). Josh Groves has set new personal-bests in at bats with 77 (31), runs with 11 (3), hits with 27 (7), doubles with 10 (1), RBIs with 12 (3), total bases with 37 (8) and is also on pace in average and slugging percentage.

LET THE LEAGUE GAMES BEGIN!
Milwaukee is happy to get into 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. Heading into 2007, the Panthers had gone 152-99 (.606) in league play, better than runner-up UIC, which had a 140-108 (.565) league record in that same span.

PUT THAT ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
Just how rare was that 1-0 game against Butler (April 7) in the NCAA Division I history of the Milwaukee baseball program? Research shows that the team had played 833 games overall since going DI in 1991 up until April 7 and the victory over Butler was just the eighth game that resulted in a 1-0 decision (.0096%), going 4-4 in such contests. The last was in May of 2002, when UWM beat Detroit on a 10th-inning sacrifice fly.

The following is a list of those 1-0 results:
4/7/07: Win at home versus Butler
5/4/02: Win at home versus Detroit (10 innings)
4/10/99: Loss at Detroit
4/17/98: Win at Butler
4/1/97: Loss at Northwestern
4/15/95: Win at UIC
4/23/94: Loss at Wright State
5/3/92: Loss at NE Illinois

TOUGH EARLY SLATE
First it was then-No. 6 Arkansas and next came then-No. 21 Kentucky. Fact is that the two teams that UWM was swept by to start 2007 have a combined record of 67-29-1 (.698) at this point in the season. Arkansas is now 36-14, Kentucky 31-15-1 and both have been ranked in all polls for nearly the entire season, with Arkansas still in the Top 5 in most polls and Kentucky rising as high as No. 8 earlier this year. To take that a step further, Austin Peay is 30-17 and Hawaii is 31-19, giving each of UWM's first four 2007 non-conference opponents a 30+ win season and a combined record of an impressive 128-65-1, a .662 overall winning percentage.

PRESEASON POLL
The Panthers were picked third in the 2007 Horizon League preseason baseball poll. They will look to improve on their second place finish from a year ago and claim their third league regular season title since 2000

Illinois-Chicago was the top pick to win the league in the vote of Horizon League head coaches. The Flames went 35-20 and won the regular season title for the fifth-straight time in 2006. They received 24 points and four of the six first-place votes. Wright State was picked second after posting a 32-27 record and enjoying a four-game run through the league tournament, where they outscored opponents by a 52-5 count, en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance. The Raiders received the other two first place votes and 21 points. Milwaukee finished right behind in third with 16 points, while Butler (14 points), Youngstown State (10) and Cleveland State (5) rounded out the poll in fourth through sixth places.

1. UIC (4)          24 points
2. Wright State (2) 21 points
3. UW-Milwaukee     16 points
4. Butler           14 points
5. Youngstown State 10 points
6. Cleveland State   5 points

WHOSE TURN TO SHINE?
The Panthers counted heavily on 10 seniors last season, including five everyday starters, three starting pitchers and their closer. In all, the seniors accounted for over 1,000 plate appearances and over half of the innings (278.2 of 497.0) on the mound. Who will be the contributors in the 2007 season? Besides 15 returning letterwinners, UWM looks to 17 newcomers to step up this season.

ON TAP
Milwaukee will play its final home game of the regular season May 15, when it will honor the six-member senior class against Indiana State Tuesday at "The Hank", starting at 4 p.m. Then, it's off to Butler to close out the regular season with a four-game series in Indianapolis, Ind.