The Milwaukee baseball team begins the 2018 season this weekend, traveling to Port Charlotte, Florida, to participate in the Snowbird Baseball Classic. The Panthers will play Friday through Sunday, with the season opener scheduled Friday morning against Ohio State, set for a first pitch of 10 a.m. CST.

The Snowbird Classic is held annually in the Charlotte Harbor and Gulf Islands area of Port Charlotte and draws countless teams from all over the country to open the new campaign. Parents or fans interested in traveling along with the team can find all of the information they would need at www.snowbirdbaseball.info.

Milwaukee will play four games in the event, taking on two different teams. In addition to the opener against the Buckeyes, the Panthers will play Canisius Saturday at 11 a.m. CST and again Sunday at 9 a.m. CST. The four-game visit will wrap up with a second contest against OSU Sunday afternoon, beginning at 12 p.m. CST. Live statistics will only available for the two games against Ohio State.

The 2018 campaign marks the 54th season of baseball at UWM. It is also the 48th season of varsity play (the program was played at the club level from 1982-1986) and the 28th in the Panthers NCAA Division I era.

As a northern team that cannot practice outdoors before the start of the season, it is no surprise that Milwaukee does not have a great record in season openers. It is just 5-22 in such contests at the Division I level, but did post an impressive 10-0 victory over Maine to open the slate in 2015. Friday will mark Scott Doffek's 12th opener as head coach.

LOOKING AT THE OPPONENTS
The Buckeyes, under eighth-year head coach Greg Beals, return 22 letterwinners from a year ago while also welcoming 10 newcomers to the 2018 roster. The team went 22-34 in 2017, but is just one season removed from a 44-20-1 mark in 2016 that included a Big Ten Tournament championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament. Key returners include outfielder Dominic Canzone (.343, 4 2B, 3 HR, 36 RBI) and third baseman Conner Pohl (.325, 7 2B, 1 HR, 8 RB).

Canisius finished the 2017 season at 35-22, which included a 16-8 mark in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play. The Golden Griffins are led by first-year head coach Matt Mazurek, who was promoted after 12 years as an assistant on the staff. Senior Liam Wilson was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Team, with the team finishing second in the league preseason poll. Wilson finished with a .343 batting average, 74 hits and 38 RBI a year ago.

SERIES HISTORIES
Milwaukee has a brief history with Ohio State, dropping the only contest played between the two back in March of 2005 by a score of 4-1. Milwaukee and Canisius have never met on the baseball diamond.

BASEBALL SEASON ALREADY?
The February 16th open to the 2018 campaign may sound early, but it does not crack the top five anymore following recent seasons. In fact, six of the top seven all-time earliest starts to the season have taken place in the past 12 years.

1. 2006: February 10
T2. 2015: February 13
T2. 1999: February 13
4. 2014: February 14
5. 2013: February 15
T6. 2018: February 16
T6. 2007: February 16

KEEP 'EM COMING
Scott Doffek joined some rare company on April 22 when the Panthers topped Youngstown State, giving Doffek career victory No. 300 as the Milwaukee head coach. He is just the second coach in program history - dating all the way back to 1957 - to reach that level. The only coach ahead of him? Jerry Augustine, who holds the record of 347 wins in his time at Milwaukee from 1995-2006 (347-297-1 /.539). Doffek enters the 2018 season at 309 victories.

1. Augustine (1996-2006): 347
2. Doffek (2007-present): 309
3. Jim Burian (1982-1990): 143
4. Bill Ritter (1957-1970): 122

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Scott Doffek will bring a roster into the 2018 season that includes 15 newcomers as well as a pair of redshirts who did not appear in a game for the Panthers, meaning that essentially half of the roster has never played a game for the program. The breakdown of the new student-athletes is as follows:
Freshman (12): Mitch Buban, Bryce Cross, Mike Edwards, Conner Goodman, Jack Kraus, Kevin Lane, Jack Mahoney, Nick Moeser, Zach Nogalski, Joey Scaffidi, Jack Thelen, Patrick Tomfohrde
Redshirt Freshman (1): Matt DeYoung
Transfers (4): Tyler Bordner (JR), Colin Kreiter (JR), Oakland Scanlon (JR), Joshua Serio (SR)
In addition, redshirt freshman Nick Winter made just one appearance last season before being lost to injury.

That makes the squad young as well, consisting of 20 total underclassmen, made up of 14 freshmen and six sophomores on the roster.

BIG SHOES TO FILL
With a big senior class departing last season as well as players lost early to the Major League Baseball Draft, a look at the numbers shows the Panthers lost a large percentage of production in numerous categories.

GAMES STARTED (field players only): 352/486: 72.4 percent of starts will not return to the field in 2018.
AT BATS: 1,334/1,890: 70.5 percent of at bats do not return
RUNS: 200/282: 70.9 percent of runs
HITS: 363/516: 70.3 percent of hits
HOME RUNS: 28/30: 93.3 percent of home runs do not return

PRESEASON NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Various publications and websites came out with their annual college baseball previews and players from the Milwaukee roster have earned a handful of mentions.

Baseball America picks the Panthers for third place and lists Austin Schulfer as the No. 9 entry on BA's "Top Prospect List" in the conference.

The Perfect Game website also lists Milwaukee No. 3, and it's Schulfer again as a member of their Preseason All-Conference Team, where he is called "one of the top returning arms". He is joined on the squad by Trevor Schwecke, who is listed as having "+ makeup & instincts" by the site.

DAULTON VAR-"SHOW"
Daulton Varsho put together some impressive accomplishments in his three season with the Panthers. He was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 68th pick on Day 1 of the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft (selection officially came in the Competitive Balance Round B, which immediately followed the second round). The pick was the highest-ever for a Panther, becoming just the second player in Horizon League history to be selected within the top two rounds of the draft. He enjoyed an impressive junior campaign, named a Second-Team All-American by D1Baseball and Third-Team All-American by Baseball America. Varsho led the Horizon League in batting average (.362), slugging percentage (.643), on-base percentage (.490), triples (6) and walks (46), while also finishing fourth in total bases (128), fifth in hits (72), sixth with a team-high 11 home runs and seventh in runs scored (47). He went on to bat .311 in the 2017 season with Class A Hillsboro Hops, posting a .368 OBP with 7 HR and 39 RBI in 50 games, totaling 26 extra-base hits while scoring 36 runs. He was listed as the Diamondbacks No. 5 Prospect by Baseball America in the offseason, along with the publication projecting him to be the starting catcher for the MLB team by the 2021 campaign.

Varsho became the first UWM baseball player to be named a Preseason All-American (by Collegiate Baseball) and went on to become a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award. He was also named to the 2017 Horizon League Baseball All-Academic Team and was a Second-Team All-Horizon League honoree in 2017. Varsho finished his career with 199 hits, coming up just one hit short of becoming the first UWM junior to reach the 200-hit level

LET'S HIT THE ROAD...
As usual, the Panthers will be busy waiting for the snow to melt away and Henry Aaron Field to be ready for them to play in Milwaukee. While that happens, they will be playing 25 straight road games to open the 2018 slate.

In 2016, by the time all the postponements were finally over and the home opener "officially" got here April 20 against Edgewood, the Panthers played 31 regular-season games (plus the exhibition against the Brewers, so technically 32) either on the road or on a neutral field before finally getting to play at Henry Aaron Field. That became the new school record for most contests away from Milwaukee before playing a true home game.

The past few Wisconsin springs have not been kind. Postponements and cancellations have been the norm most of the past five years, with the Panthers having to play their "home" opener in Chicago in 2014. Also, in 2013, the team ended up playing 29 in a row on the road (losing 12 contests to the weather overall) before finally playing a home game April 24.

The Panthers will travel just over 14,000 miles over the course of the first seven weeks of this season via plane or bus, visiting seven different states (Florida twice, Washington, Minnesota, Alabama, Illinois twice, Ohio twice and Michigan) before playing their home opener April 4 against MSOE. To put that in perspective, that would be equivalent to circling the bases 205,333 times.

PRESEASON POLL
Milwaukee was picked to finish third in the 2018 Horizon League preseason baseball poll, released in early February.

Last season's tournament and regular-season runner-up, Wright State, was unanimously selected as the 2018 conference favorite as determined by the annual preseason coaches' poll. Tournament and regular-season champion UIC was tabbed second, followed by Milwaukee, Northern Kentucky, Oakland, and Youngstown State.
 
2018 Horizon League Baseball Preseason Poll
1. Wright State (6 first-place votes) 36
2. UIC 29
3. Milwaukee 20
4. Northern Kentucky 19
5. Oakland 14
6. Youngstown State 8

A BAKER'S DOZEN FOR SCHULFER
Austin Schulfer added his name to the record book in his start at Miller Park against Oakland April 30 of last season when he struck out 13 batters to equal the school record for a game. Schulfer had a pair of K's in five of his seven innings of work and struck out the side in the fifth to become the fifth different UWM pitcher to reach the mark.

Eric Semmelhack: 13 on 3/31/12
Aaron Sorenson: 13 on 5/20/16 and 4/8/05
Ben Stanczyk: 13 on 4/23/04
Korey Keller: 13 on 4/26/03

Schulfer had reached a collegiate-high against Oakland April 23, establishing a personal-best when he struck out 10 Golden Grizzlies (in just 7.0 innings) in his start. That topped his former best of nine set back on May 5, 2015. It also marked the first outing of 10-plus K's for a Panther pitcher since Brian Keller had 12 in May of 2016.

MOWING THEM DOWN
Paced by the 13K-effort of starter Austin Schulfer that day, the Milwaukee pitching staff broke another school record the same day against Oakland. Jake Sommers pitched the final two innings and fanned four more Golden Grizzlies, giving the team 17 strikeouts for the day to break the school record of 16. The former mark of 16 punchouts had been previously accomplished twice, most recently against UIC on April 24, 2016. For perspective, that contest against UIC was a 12-inning affair.

IT'S MILLER TIME
Through a marketing agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Panthers have played at Miller Park every season since 2002. UWM has now posted a record of 17-10 in games at the major league park, following a 10-3 defeat of Oakland last season. The team returns in 2018 on May 12 against Wright State.

ON TAP
It's back to Florida for the team, taking on Bethune-Cookman in a three-game set. Game one of the series is set for Friday at 5 p.m. CST.