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Panthers Host Penguins To Close Out Regular Season This Week

UWM and YSU will play two games at Miller Park Thursday

May 13, 2008

The end of the regular season is already here, as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team closes out the final week with three home games against Youngstown State. Thursday's twinbill be also be Milwaukee's annual visit to Miller Park, as the Panthers and Penguins will play following the completion of the Brewers/Dodgers game that day. The approximate start should be between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., but will vary depending on how long the MLB game takes that day. The event will also serve as Senior Day, with the seven members of the class being honored on the field in between games. The two teams will then close out the series, and season, with a 1 p.m. contest at Henry Aaron Field Friday afternoon.

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UWM holds the slim 16-15 advantage in the all-time series after dropping a doubleheader on the road in April, falling 10-9 in 10 innings and 10-3 in the second game. The teams played no less than eight times last season, including twice in the Horizon League Tournament. After the teams spilt the season series, 3-3, Milwaukee won the ones that mattered the most, defeating the Penguins twice in the league tournament: 16-6 in the opener and 9-0 in an elimination contest.

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.

UWM'S NEW HIT KING
With a single up the middle in the eighth inning of game two versus Butler May 10, senior Jesse Hart took his place in program history by collecting career hit No. 246 to break the former mark of 245 held by Darin Haugom (1997-2001). Hart has been nothing but steady over the course of his career, collecting 33 hits as a freshman, 74 as a sophomore, 71 as a junior and 68 - and counting - as a senior this spring. He was honored as Horizon League Player of the Week for his efforts on Monday.

PLENTY OF ROOM TO MOVE UP
Heading into the final week of the regular season, Milwaukee currently sits in sixth place in the Horizon League standings with a 10-13 record. However, as it stands now, there is plenty of room to move up with just three games remaining. Wright State (16-6) and UIC (14-6) will finish first or second and Youngstown State is third at 11-11, but will have to play three games head-to-head with UWM. Cleveland State is fourth at 9-11 and Valparaiso is fifth with an 8-10 mark. CSU plays three at seventh-place Butler (5-16) this weekend, but Valpo will have its hands full with three games at UIC, with the Flames still able to clinch the regular season crown with three wins.

Getting out of the sixth place position would be beneficial to Milwaukee, as it would then not have to play in the #6/#7 play-in game that opens the Horizon League Tournament May 20. The championship will be played at Eastwood Field in Niles, Ohio, this year, with YSU serving as the host. Play gets underway Tuesday at 3 p.m. with a champion decided May 24.

MILLER TIME FOR UWM AT MILLER PARK
Through a marketing agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Panthers have played at Miller Park every season since 2002. UWM has made the most of those opportunities, posting a record of 9-3 in games at the major league park after splitting a twinbill against Butler there in 2007.

SENIOR RECOGNITION
With the games at Miller Park arriving much later on the schedule this season than normal, the team will be able to have its Senior Day on May 15 as well. The seven Milwaukee seniors - Adam Ferrell, Jesse Hart, Matt Holzheuter, Ben McClarey, John Sarcia, Troy Vesling and Nick Wichser - will all be honored in an on-field presentation between games Thursday.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Youngstown State is currently 20-30 and 11-11 in league play, but will be playing midweek before traveling to Wisconsin Thursday. The Penguins defeated West Virginia, 13-9, Monday and will also host Kent State Tuesday. The Penguins split a league twinbill at Valparaiso May 10.

Pitcher Aaron Swenson is assembling a very impressive sophomore campaign. He earned his sixth league win and improved to 6-3 overall by defeating Valpo on Saturday in his fifth-complete game of the year. He leads the Horizon League in innings pitched (85.2) and strikeouts (61), ranks second in wins (6), and is third in ERA (3.68) and opposing batting average (.255). Erich Diedrich hit the 25th home run of his career on Friday at Wright State, which is one off of the school record. YSU needs five more wins to achieve 1,000 as a program.

Joe Iacobucci leads the offense with a .361 average and has knocked in 32 runs. Diedrich is batting .358 and has scored 32 runs and driven in 26. Eric Marzec has a team-high five home runs and is one of five regulars batting over .300 (.306) on the year.

LAST WEEK'S RECAP
Milwaukee went 4-3 in a busy week that featured seven games, as well as winning three of four league games on the weekend. It batted .355 as a team and recorded a 4.19 team ERA. The offense had four players bat over .300, including two over .400. Junior Andy Gerhartz hit .455 for the week, going 10-for-22 in six games while scoring seven runs, driving in four and stealing four bases in four tries. Senior Nick Wichser was next at .440, collecting 11 hits in 25 at bats while starting all seven games. He drove in seven and scored five runs. Senior Jesse Hart was next, batting .370 (10-for-27), including an 8-for-17 showing in the four league games on the weekend. Freshman Doug Dekoning (.353) and junior Shawn Wozniak (.333) were also over the .300 mark.

On the mound, junior Brad Lusti won his start with eight scoreless innings against Butler May 10, striking out nine batters - a season-high for a UWM starter. Senior Matt Holzheuter also picked up a win with two scoreless innings of relief Saturday, while junior Andy Hetebrueg won again, limiting then-first place UIC to two earned runs in 8.0 innings Friday.

DOUBLE THE FUN
Hitting doubles has been a hallmark of the UWM offense, as the team has broken the season record in two-baggers five times in the past eight seasons. This year is no different, as they currently lead the Horizon League with 128 doubles and are on pace to break the record once again. Senior Jesse Hart has been the biggest contributor, leading the team with 24 entering play this week. With a double in the fourth inning against Northwestern April 30, he also broke the career record for two-baggers with No. 59. That eclipsed the former mark of 58, held by Ross McCoy (2004-07) and he has now pushed that total to 62 entering play this week. As of this week's NCAA statistical release, Milwaukee ranked 13th as a team in doubles per game and 10th in overall doubles. Hart ranked tied for fourth in the NCAA in total doubles and ninth in the NCAA in doubles per game. In addition to that, UWM has the top three accumulators of doubles in the Horizon League: Hart is first with 24, junior Shawn Wozniak is second with 22 and senior Nick Wichser is tied for third with 20.

More doubles notes:
--UWM has three players with 20 or more doubles in the same season for the first time in school history.
--Hart (24) and Wozniak (22) have combined for more doubles than any other pair of teammates at the NCAA D-I level. One or the other will hold the school record for doubles at the end of the season.
--Hart already holds the UWM record for career doubles at 62, breaking the UWM mark of 59. Up next would be the 21-year old Horizon League record for two-baggers, currently held by Adam Casillas of Oral Roberts (1984-87) at 66.

AN ACE UP THEIR SLEEVE
Junior Andy Hetebrueg has been heating up as the season has progressed and is now 5-6 overall after recording wins in four of his last five appearances. He has won each of his last four starts, beating UIC (two earned runs in 8.0 IP) May 9, Valparaiso (6 K's in 6.2 IP) May 3, Wright State April 25 and Cleveland State (three earned runs in 8.0 IP, career-high 7 K's) April 19. He is second in the league with five victories.

DOFFEK OFFICIALLY ON TOP AFTER TWO YEARS
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. He made it 2-for-2 this year, as victory No. 20 on the season May 10 gave him 45 is his two seasons at the helm, topping the old mark of 44 set by former skipper Jerry Augustine, with 21 in 1995 and 23 in 1996.

SO HOW DOES THAT FIGURE?
Despite the 20-3 loss May 3 against Valparaiso, the UWM pitching staff equaled the program record of 15 strikeouts set March 30, 2003 against Northern Iowa. Freshman Cuyler Franzke got the start, fanning just one in 2.0 innings. Sophomore Tim Hoy added two in 2.0 innings and it took off from there. Senior Matt Holzheuter and freshman Brett Proud each went on to strike out five batters in their 2.0 innings of work and sophomore Zach Hoch took care of the rest. He struck out the first batter of the inning to get to 14 and the final batter of the frame to get to 15 and equal the mark.

THESE GUYS CAN HIT
With the team batting average hovering near .300 lately, a look at the line-up shows six different every day players with season averages over the .300 mark. Senior Nick Wichser currently leads the team at .364 and has started all 52 games in the outfield. Sophomore Shaun Wegner is next at .350, having started 34 games at catcher. Junior Shawn Wozniak is third at .337, having started 49 games at first base. Freshman Doug Dekoning gives UWM two starting outfielders over the mark, as he is up to .333 on the year. Senior Jesse Hart is batting .327 and has started 50 games (mostly at second base) and junior Andy Gerhartz is at .303 and has made 32 starts at shortstop and in the outfield. Junior Josh Groves has also been over .300 for most of the season and is now at .298 as the starting third baseman.

HART IN THE 200 CLUB; WICHSER UP NEXT
Senior Jesse Hart joined a select group with his base hit against NIU April 2: players to collect 200 or more hits in a Panther career. Hart sat at 199 in his illustrious career heading into the game at Northern Illinois before lacing a double in his first at-bat. Senior Nick Wichser is now on pace to join that select group as well, as he has upped his career total to 194 entering play Thursday. Darin Haugom (245), Ross McCoy (220) and Charlie Reschke (213) are the other three.

THIS "WOZ" GOOD; VERY GOOD
Junior Shawn Wozniak continues his impressive breakout junior campaign, as he has set new career-highs in runs (35), at bats (181), doubles (22) and runs batted in (38) while batting .337. He entered play last week on a 15-game hitting streak. In 50 games last year, Wozniak recorded 33 hits in 133 at bats (.248), scored 26 runs, hit four home runs and drove in 22. He currently has three home runs, so that may be the next category to fall.

FRESHMEN LEARNING CURVE
Freshman Doug Dekoning opened the season as one of the starting outfielders for the Panthers and has gone on to appear in 43 games, making 35 starts. After a slow start which saw him batting .173 at the end of March, the Dick Falk Award winner (high school player of the year in the state of Wisconsin) has raised his batting average to its current .333. Over his last 24 contests, he has recorded 32 hits in 71 at bats (.451) with 18 runs scored.

HIT PARADE
The Panthers combined for 40 hits in back-to-back games late last month, accounting for 18 against Iowa April 22 and then 22 more in the opener against Wright State April 25. That marks the most hits that the UWM offense has had in consecutive games since collecting 41 in April of the 2006 season. That year, the Panthers tied the school record with 29 safeties against Chicago State April 12 and then added 12 more against Youngstown State April 15 for a two-game total of 41.

HURTS SO GOOD
For a pair of Panther players, getting on base by any means can be a little painful at times. Junior Andy Gerhartz and sophomore Shaun Wegner lead the team in getting hit by a pitch this season, with both ranking in the top four in the league heading into play this week. Gerhartz has been plunked a league-leading 16 times and Wegner is now tied for fourth at 13. For the record, the UWM season mark is 26 by Clay Schwartz in 1997.

OUR TURN
Senior Troy Vesling and sophomore Shaun Wegner have made the most of additional playing time this season, as each has already set career-highs in numerous categories. Vesling has established career marks in at bats with 179 (was 99), runs with 25 (14), hits with 45 (25) and has already gone well past his RBI-total from last season (18) sitting at 29 after play this weekend. After batting .277 as a freshman, Wegner is currently at .350 and has blown by last season's totals of 18 runs (he currently has 29), 26 hits (has 41), and 13 RBI (has 21). In addition, he has picked four runners off base and thrown out 16 would-be base stealers.

THE BEAT GOES ON NO MORE...
Senior Nick Wichser saw his hitting streak end at 24 games in the first contest of a doubleheader at Cleveland State April 19. The streak will go down as the third-longest in program history, trailing only 32 and 27-game hitting streaks by Mike Goetz in 2006. Wichser ended the stretch with 16 multi-hit efforts in those 24 games, going 44 for 92 (.478) while scoring 28 runs and driving in 25 more.

HART ON SEASON-LONG MISSION
Senior Jesse Hart is looking to put his name in the UWM record books in numerous spots over the course of his final season and two of those are approaching quickly (he broke the hits record May 10). 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. 246, Jesse Hart
2. 729, Jesse Hart		    2. 245, Darin Haugom (1997-2001)
3. 692, Darin Haugom (1997-2001)    3. 220, Ross McCoy (2004-07)
4. 683, Charlie Reschke (2002-05)   4. 213, Charlie Reschke (2002-05)
5. 610, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)   5. 197, Chad Sadowski (1997-2000)

READY FOR BUS RIDES AND MOTEL STOPS...
The Panthers were 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 happened, they played 30-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.

The Panthers traveled more than 12,500 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.

PRESEASON SHOWINGS
Milwaukee was picked to take second in the Horizon League season preview put out by www.rivals.com, 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.

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.

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
UWM will see how the regular season closes out before knowing where it sits in the standings. That will determine when the Panthers will start play in the Horizon League Tournament next week. If they are the #6 seed (they cannot finish #7), they will start Tuesday. Otherwise, any other league finish will have them begin play Wednesday at Eastwood Field in Niles, Ohio.