MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee enters the third week of the 2023 baseball season with a 4-2 record and will play its first midweek game on Wednesday against Minnesota at US Bank Stadium before heading to Cape Girardeau, Missouri for a three-game set with SEMO. The 4-2 start is the best start for the team since the 2019 season, when Milwaukee went 5-1 in its first six games.

SCOUTING THE GOPHERS
Minnesota has played a tough non-conference slate to open the season with three nationally ranked opponents as the Gophers have started the year at 0-7. Minnesota was just swept in a three-game set against Saint Louis in Fort Myers, Florida, dropping the three decisions 6-3, 8-3, and 16-9.

Brett Bateman leads Minnesota in hitting with a .300 average with a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Sam Hunt has the team's highest OPS with a 1.122 and has three extra-base hits with five runs scored and three RBIs. Eight different Gophers have at least three RBIs on the young season, while Bateman leads the team with 12 hits, and Brady Counsell is second on the team with 11 hits including three doubles. Bateman is also the team leader in stolen bases, going three-for-three thus far.

Richie Holetz leads the Minnesota pitching staff with a 2.89 earned run average and has nine strikeouts over his 9 1/3 innings of work. Sam Malec leads the team in strikeouts with 10 over his team-leading 9 2/3 innings or work. Tucket Novotny and Connor Wietgrefe also have nine strikeouts, with the latter coming out of the bullpen for 6 2/3 innings of work over three outings.

Milwaukee will face Ben Shepard on Wednesday, who has struck out one and not allowed a hit over his two innings of work. Shepard is a redshirt senior who tossed two innings of scoreless relief against Saint Louis on February 25. He transferred to Minnesota this offseason after four years at Division II Minnesota-Duluth. While there he struck out 116 over 140 1/3 innings in his four seasons, while posting an 11-12 record and one save, while holding batters to a .324 batting average.

Bateman, Novotny, and Boston Merlia all earned preseason honors list from the Big Ten in Mid-February.

SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS
Southeast Missouri is 2-6 and will play non-conference Evansville on Wednesday before this weekend's three game set with the Panthers. The team returns home after a four-game trip to Abiline Christian, going 3-1 including a 23-2 win in seven innings on Saturday.

Josh Cameron leads the Redhawk offense with a .379 average with 11 hits including seven for extra bases while also driving in a team-best six and scoring nine runs. Cameron was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week after hitting .471 with three home runs, two triples while driving in six this past week.

Lincoln Andrews had two home runs on the year with six RBIs, while Jevon Mason and Chance Resetich have driven in five apiece despite their sub-.200 batting averages. Mason also leads the team with two stolen bases as SEMO is 4-for-5 on stolen base attempts in eight games.

Noah Niznik and Payton Lawrence anchor the SEMO rotation with Niznik registering nine strikeouts over 8 1/3 innings, while Lawrence has 10 strikeouts over his 8 1/3 innings. Haden Dow has two starts and has thrown seven innings with three strikeouts while pitching to a 1.29 ERA, with Collin Wilma had six innings over his two starts with a 3.00 ERA.

Southeast Missouri was picked to win the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference according to the preseason poll, as the team had three players earn preseason honors with outfielders Brett Graber and Mason, while pitcher Kyle Miller also nabbed preseason accolades.

SERIES HISTORY
Milwaukee has played 17 matchups with Minnesota with the first matchup coming in 1995, the Gophers own an 11-6 advantage over Milwaukee, but the Panthers have won three of the last five, including a 5-4 win in their most recent matchup on May 1, 2019. The Panthers led 5-0 in that game, before the Gophers scored the next four runs as all scoring was done in the first two innings of a nine-inning game.

Milwaukee has never played Southeast Missouri in program history but were scheduled to play each other in mid-February of 2021. However, rain forced the cancellation of the three-game set in Missouri.

BAKER'S DOZEN
In the early going of the season with two starts apiece in their pockets, starting pitchers Luke Hansel and Riley Frey are among the Horizon League leaders in strikeouts with 13 apiece.

Frey registered another six strikeouts over his four-inning outing in California this past weekend, while Hansel followed up his nine-strikeout performance with four more punchouts in a six-inning outing at Pacific.

Milwaukee's staff has struck out 52 batters on the year and are currently fourth in the conference, despite playing the fewest innings thus far on the season.

LUCKY 7
With his seven strikeouts during the season opener, Riley Frey has struck out at least seven batters in 12 of his 30 career appearances. Including a career-high 10 against Alabama A&M and Northern Kentucky as a sophomore in 2022.

The lefty has amassed 165 strikeouts over 169 innings of work thus far in his career.

SWIPING RIGHT!
In six games, Milwaukee has stolen 10 bases and is on pace for 83 through the team's 50-game season.

The program record for stolen bases on a season came back in 2016, when the Panthers stole 103. As a program, the team has only stolen more than 80 bags in just four seasons (2016: 103; 2015: 102; 2001: 93; and 2011: 87).

PRESEASON POLL
The Horizon League announced the results of its preseason coaches' poll last week with Milwaukee selected to finish in third position with a total of 28 points, just one behind second-place Oakland.

Wright State was a near unanimous selection to repeat as Horizon League champions, hauling in five of six first-place votes. Northern Kentucky received the final first-place vote, and were fifth in the preseason poll with just 21 points.

PERFECT GAME PREVIEW
PerfectGame.org revealed its Horizon League season preview on February 6, with a trio of Panthers earning preseason all-conference honors. Outfielder Ty Olejnik, and pitchers Riley Frey and transfer Owen Rice were all selected for honors.

AROUND THE LEAGUES
After being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays from the Arizona Diamondbacks, former Milwaukee Panthers catcher Daulton Varsho is projected to be the opening day leftfielder for Toronto according to the team's depth chart on its official website.

Through three Major League season, Varsho has a career .234 batting average with 41 home runs and 121 RBIs in 283 career games with the D'Backs.

Following his sophomore season with the Panthers in 2022, the Houston Astros selected AJ Blubaugh from the Milwaukee roster in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball draft and was ultimately assigned to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers of the Low-A Carolina League he was selected as the Carolina League Pitcher of the Month in September of 2022 after throwing 13 innings and striking out 20 batters in three games.

Trevor Schwecke finished his 2022 campaign with the Blue Jays organization and made it to Triple-A Buffalo on a callup in late August. On the year he hit .230 with 10 home runs and 44 RBIs including three home runs and 11 RBIs in 19 games with Buffalo.

Austin Schulfer coasted through 23 innings with a 0.39 ERA in 15 games with Double-A Texas to earn his promotion to Triple-A St. Paul, where he appeared in 29 games and had a 5.23 ERA as he earned himself an invite to Major League Spring Training with the Minnesota Twins in 2023.

After being claimed in the Rule V Draft by the Boston Red Sox in 2021 and pitching for the Worcester WooSox this past season (6-5, 3.27 ERA, 113 IP, 126 Ks), pitched Brian Keller signed with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball.

A five-year career with the Panthers for Jack Mahoney concluded this past spring after throwing 31 innings and striking out 33 while pitching to a 4.06 ERA with the Panthers in 2022. The left-hander followed it up by signing with the Milwaukee Milkmen of the American Association. He pitched in 32 games with one start and struck out 48 batters over 39 1/3 innings.