March 12, 2008

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team will make its shortest road trip since the season started last month, heading to Clarksville, Tenn., to battle Austin Peay State University in a three-game weekend series. The Panthers and Governors are set to play single games Friday at 2:30 p.m. and at noon on both Saturday and Sunday.

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All three contests in the series will be available on Austin Peay's website, www.apsugovernors.com, via Game Watcher Live Stats. The all-time series dates back to the 1995 season, but has been very one-sided since UWM won that first game 13 years ago. APSU leads the series, 9-1, including three victories when the teams squared-off last season by scores of 3-1, 5-4 and 14-0.

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
Austin Peay returns 15 members of its 2007 roster, including six starting position players, from last season's squad that posted a 40-22 mark and claimed the Ohio Valley Conference's regular-season and tournament crowns. The Governors will have holes to fill on the mound, needing to replace three starters, including league pitcher of the year Shawn Kelley.

The team is off to an up-and-down 6-5 start, having gone 5-3 since opening the season by dropping two of three to Horizon League opponent Valparaiso. The weather has been playing with their schedule, bringing numerous postponements and cancellations already. They had a busy week heading into the series, playing twice on Monday before beating Lipscomb, 8-6, Tuesday. They will also play at Belmont Wednesday before hosting Milwaukee.

Through play Tuesday, Rafael Hill led the offense with a .447 average, including a team-best 17 hits and seven runs batted in. Joshua Kemph (.345) and Will Hogue (.333) gave the Govs three starters over the .300 mark. The staff had an ERA of 6.03, which was led by Ryne Harper at 2.45.

REVIEW OF LAST WEEK
Milwaukee's early-season skid continued at Centenary College last weekend, dropping a four-game set to the Gents on its trip to Shreveport, La. UWM had opportunities all weekend, taking early leads in the first three games but never being able to hold on. In the finale, junior Andy Hetebrueg threw a gem, allowing just three hits in 5.0 innings of his start despite dropping the hard-luck 2-1 decision.

Junior Josh Groves led the offense with a .417 average, going 5-for-12 in the series. Seniors Nick Wichser and Troy Vesling each checked in at .357 with 5-for-14 showings, with Wichser adding his first home run of the season and five runs batted in.

On the mound, seniors Adam Ferrell (4.2 innings), Ben McClarey (2.0 IP), Matt Holzheuter (1.0 IP) and junior Jordan Herbert (1.0 IP) combined for a 0.00 ERA, giving up no earned runs in 8.2 innings combined, allowing just six hits and striking out five.

GUNNING `EM OUT
Sophomore catcher Shaun Wegner is off to a fast start throwing out base runners this season. In his seven starts, he has already thrown out six runners trying to steal out of the 14 (42.9%) who have attempted to run on him.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE ANALYSIS
Milwaukee's 1-10 record is very uncharacteristic of the team. However, a closer look at the four teams that UWM has lost to this season is a better measuring stick for any reasons as to why. The four teams are currently 36-10 for a .783 winning percentage. Centenary is 9-2, Saint Mary's is 8-3, UNC-Wilmington is 9-4 and Jacksonville is currently 10-1.

According to the baseball statistics and analysis website www.boydsworld.com, the Panthers have the 10th-highest strength of schedule for games played to date during the 2008 season.

1. Duquesne
2. San Diego
3. Stanford
4. Cal State Fullerton
5. Texas Christian
6. San Diego State
7. Loyola Marymount
8. Oklahoma State
9. Sienna
10. Milwaukee

LET'S GO STREAKING
Junior Josh Groves recently had two long streaks come to a close. The first was a 19-game hitting streak that ended tied for the fifth-longest in program history. Groves batted .447 clip in the stretch; going 34-for-76 with 25 runs batted in and 13 doubles.

The other was in the field, where he had a 61-game errorless streak come to an end March 7 against Centenary. Before that game, his fielding miscue was April 11, 2006 against UIC - a span of 196 straight chances. He did not make an error in the field during the entire 2007 season.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Plenty of the newcomers have had a chance to make their UWM debuts in the first three weeks of the season. In the field, freshman Cole Kraft is batting .263, making nine starts in 10 games. Freshman Doug Dekoning has made eight starts, collecting four hits and scoring three runs. Freshman Sam Sivilotti has a hit in five appearances, but, more impressively, already has three outfield assists.

On the mound, junior Craig Meier is 1-2 and has a team-high 18.1 innings pitched and 11 strikeouts. Junior Brad Lusti has recorded a 3.63 ERA in 17.1 innings, striking out six and limiting opponents to a .288 average.

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.

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.

HART ON SEASON-LONG MISSION
Senior Jesse Hart will look to put in 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.

GOING YARD EARLY
When junior Josh Groves hit two home runs in the opener, it marked the first time a UWM player ever had a multi-HR effort in the first game of the season.

Other multi-HR games that came early include:
Game 2 of season:
--Randy Wilke, 3/1/92: 2 HR vs. Indiana
Game 9 of season:
--Brett Huebner, 3/20/00: 2 HR vs. Jacksonville State
Game 11 of season:
--Scott Gillitzer, 3/22/00: 2 HR vs. Samford
Game 13 of season:
--Todd Ludwig, 3/17/99: 4 HR vs. Tennessee Tech

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

HIGH SCHOOL HONORS
Freshman Doug Dekoning earned a prestigious high school honor, as he was named the 2007 recipient of the Dick Falk Award in November. The honor is presented each season by the Old Time Ballplayers Association of Wisconsin and is given to the high school player of the year in the state. Dekoning enjoyed a stellar high school career at Menomonee Falls High School. He comes to Milwaukee after being named the Greater Metro Conference Player of the Year as a senior after hitting .448 with 48 hits and 34 runs batted in. He led his team to a 69-9 record his last two years, winning back-to-back Greater Metro Conference titles.

ON TAP
Milwaukee opens its Horizon League slate with a short trip to Chicago to take on UIC. The Panthers and Flames play next Friday at 3:05 p.m. and then a twinbill starting at 12:05 p.m. Saturday.