MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee heads back on the road after three straight games at Franklin Field, the Panthers went 2-1 on the homestand and will visit Valparaiso on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. before heading to Michigan for a three-game Horizon League set against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies beginning at 1:30 p.m. (CT) on Friday.

The Panthers are 9-11 overall through the first 20 games of the season, with a 1-4 mark in Horizon League play. MKE will visit former conference foe Valparaiso in Indiana for the first time since 2018 before continuing to Oakland for its first loop through conference play.

All updates and live coverage links for this week can be found on MKEPanthers.com.

SCOUTING THE BEACONS
Valparaiso is 7-10 to start the season and were swept in a three-game set this past weekend at Indiana State to open Missouri Valley Conference play. The Beacons will host the Panthers on Tuesday before making a return trip to Franklin Field to battle Milwaukee on April 4.

Nolan Tucker and Kyle Schmack lead the way on offense for Valparaiso as the pair have combined for 44 of the team's 150 hits through the first 17 games. Tucker leads the team with a .354 batting average with three home runs and 13 RBIs, while Schmack has a .304 average with a team-best four home runs and 17 RBIs. Kaleb Hannahs gets the offense ignited with his 20 runs scored and 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts.

Connor Lockwood and Griffin McCluskey lead the starting staff, as Lockwood has a team-high 31 innings pitched and leads the staff with 27 strikeouts. McCluskey has a team-high six starts and has tossed 21 innings and struck out one batter per inning. Nathan Chasey has been a workhorse out of the pen with a team-best 2.18 ERA over 20 2/3 innings to go along with a .197 batting average against and 19 strikeouts.

Milwaukee will face right-hander Ryan Mintz, who has made five appearances and three starts on the year with eight strikeouts over 10 2/3 innings while yielding a .349 batting average against for a 10.97 ERA.

The Beacons have a team fielding percentage of .982 with only 10 errors in 17 games thus far on the year.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Oakland won 31 games in 2022 and are 8-13 with a 2-4 mark in Horizon League games through the first two weekends of the conference season, just ahead of the Panthers in the standings. The Golden Grizzlies were swept by league-favorite Wright State this past weekend in Ohio and will battle Eastern Michigan on Tuesday and Miami (Ohio) on Wednesday before welcoming in the Panthers this weekend.

Two regulars in the Oakland lineup have at least 20 hits thus far on the season with Gabe Lux leading the team with a .313 average as he has nine doubles and 10 RBIs on the year, while Thomas Green has a team-best 26 hits with six doubles, a triple and four round trippers to go along with a team-best 16 RBIs. Drew Collins leads the team with 17 runs scored and is tied for the team lead with five stolen bases.

Hunter Pidek has a 3.27 ERA to lead the staff with a team-best 1.27 WHIP as he has thrown 22 innings with 20 strikeouts and a .226 batting average against. Travis Densmore has tossed 26 1/3 innings to lead the Golden Grizzlies staff and leads the staff with 29 strikeouts in his six starts. Brandon Decker leads the bullpen with 10 appearances with a 6.45 ERA as he struck out 21 batters over 22 1/3 innings worth of work.

The Golden Grizzlies have a .968 fielding percentage with 24 errors over the team's 21 games.

SERIES HISTORY
The Panthers have 40 all-time wins against the Beacons against 32 losses in 72 meetings. Indiana has not been kind to the Panthers of late, going 0-4 in their last four visits with the last Milwaukee win in Valparaiso came on May 3, 2015. As non-conference opponents the Panthers own a 20-7 record against Valpo.

Milwaukee owns a 28-20 record against Oakland including a 2-3 mark against the Golden Grizzlies in 2022. Milwaukee is 10-13 in Rochester, Michigan including a 6-6 record over the last dozen games.

DON'T DO IT…HE DID IT
In an impressive showing on Friday, senior Jack Thelen threw our four attempted baserunners against him in the team's doubleheader against Youngstown State. He did so late in both games as well as he got the third out of the sixth and erased a leadoff single in the eighth during the opener against the Penguins, while getting the third out of the seventh and second out of the eighth inning in game two versus YSU.

Thelen hast thrown out a league-leading nine baserunners against, with Oakland backstop Brandon Heidal tied for the Horizon League lead. Thelen is second in the conference with 147 putouts and second in total chances at 164.

HAUSSER'S CLUTCH WEEK
Sophomore Justin Hausser had five RBIs over the team's three-game week against Concordia Wisconsin and Youngstown State. Hausser made the most of his chances with all five of his RBIs as the runs he drove in either gave or extended a Milwaukee lead.

Hausser had two RBIs to put the Panthers up by a 2-0 score before he extended the lead with an RBI groundout en route to a 4-1 win over Concordia Wisconsin. Against the Penguins he helped extend Milwaukee's lead in both the first and third innings to propel the Panthers to a 9-2 victory.

EXTRA-BASE MACHINE
Senior Mark Connelly was a spark in the middle of the Panther lineup this past week with three of his four hits coming for extra bases. Connelly had a double in the team's win over Concordia Wisconsin and had another two doubles against Youngstown State on Friday. With his three doubles last week, the senior has doubled his double output through 20 games and now has a team-high six on the year.

THINGS ARE HEATING UP
Aaron Chapman continued his hot stretch of late with another four hits this past week to give him a 12-for-27 stretch over the last two weeks to boost his batting average to .361 through 20 games.

Chapman is currently fourth in the Horizon League in batting average at .361 with just a pair from Northern Kentucky in the top-two spots in the league in batting average, while Andrew Patrick of Wright State is in Chapman's sights with a .363 average.

TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL
In the opening game of the series at Northern Kentucky on March 17, Aaron Chapman connected on two home runs becoming the 68th Panther to have at least two home runs in a single game. He joins current teammates Jake Novak and Nate DeYoung with multi-home run games.

Novak accomplished the feat on February 19 a season ago at Alabama A&M, while DeYoung had a three-home run game on April 15 last season at Youngstown State and had a pair of round-trippers on May 6, 2022, at Northern Kentucky. The program record is four home runs in one game set back on March 17, 1999, when Todd Ludwig had four home runs at home against Butler.

LEADING THINGS OFF
Three Panthers have had success when leading off an inning as Aaron Chapman, Mark Connelly, and Jack Thelen have all reached base at least 45% of the time when leading off an inning. Thelen has reached base 55.6% of the time, Chapman has reached 50.0%, and Connelly 45.5% when leading off a frame.

RUBBER-ARM MAN
Newcomer Sam Mathews has appeared in 12 games thus far through the team's first 20 on the season and is currently 34th in the country in appearances.

Mathews continues to pitch in high-leverage spots having not allowed a run over his 11 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts and a .216 batting average against. Dating back to his time at Division III Marietta, Mathews has not yielded a run in an outing of three innings or shorter, since April 15, 2022. Over that span since, Mathews has pitched 17 1/3 innings in outings of three innings or fewer without allowing a run.

TOUGH TO STRIKEOUT
Mark Connelly is currently 26th in all of NCAA Division I in the category of 'Toughest to Strikeout' having struck out in only five times in 72 at bats. His number leads the Horizon League having struck out in just one of every 14.4 at bats.

Aaron Chapman has broken into the top-100 in 'Toughest to Strikeout" and is 77th in the nation, striking out just once every 10.2 at bats.

THE STOLEN BASE RACE
In 20 games, Milwaukee's Luke Seidel has stolen 22 bases on the season and is currently 67th in Division I in stolen bases, while he is 51st in the country in stolen bases per game at 0.55. Seidel is one of four in the Horizon League with at least 10 stolen bases, and is currently leading the conference in stolen base percent at 11-for-11, only Andrew Patrick of Wright State has gotten at least 10 stolen bases without being caught, as Patrick is 10-for-10.

In Milwaukee history, Seidel is now fifth on the all-time stolen base list with 42 for his career, with the all-time program record set at 98 by Luke Meeteer from 2012-16.

SAVING THE DAY
Nate DeYoung has already recorded a league-best six saves as Milwaukee has relied heavily on the senior righty to lock down six of the team's nine wins on the season thus far, including a three-strikeout performance in the team's 3-2 win over Murray State on March 10.

It is the earliest in a season that a pitcher has recorded at least four saves since Cody Peterson had his fourth on March 14 of the 2015 season. Peterson needed 12 games to record his fourth, while DeYoung had five saves in the team's dozen games.

CAUGHT HIM LOOKING
With 32 strikeouts on the year, Riley Frey is fifth in the Horizon League in total strikeouts. However, Frey leads the league with the most strikeouts looking, getting 15 of his 32 strikeouts glaring at his third strike.

Luke Hansel is tied for fourth in the league in strikeouts looking with eight of his league-leading 39 strikeouts have been looking.

KEEPING IT IN THE PARK
Through the team's first 20 games this season, Milwaukee pitching has only allowed 14 home runs this season. The number is currently tops in the Horizon League, as the other five members of the six-team conference have all allowed at least 22 or more home runs.

Oakland and Purdue Fort Wayne are currently tied for the most home runs allowed with 31 apiece, while Youngstown State has yielded 30 long balls.

HELD OFF THE SCORESHEET
For the first time this season Milwaukee was shut out in the second game of the team's doubleheader on March 17 at Northern Kentucky.

It was the first time Milwaukee was shut out since May 10 of 2022 at home against Northwestern, and first time the team was shut out in a conference game since April 23 of 2022 against UIC. It was just the second time in 40 all-time meetings with Northern Kentucky that a Panther team has been held scoreless and first since May 1, 2016, when NKU won by a 3-0 score at Henry Aaron Field.

PLAY BALL!
Through a marketing agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Panthers have played at American Family Field, home of the Brewers, every season since 2002 (excluding 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The Panthers are 19-11 all-time in games played at Milwaukee's Major League Stadium, including last season's 5-2 win over MSOE. The Panthers and Raiders will meet on April 26 following the Brewers/Tigers game.

CATCH ALL THE ACTION
Thanks to ESPN+, Milwaukee baseball fans will have the opportunity to watch the Panthers all season long. All of Milwaukee's home games will be carried live online at ESPN+, excluding the April 26 game at American Family Field. The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform.

ESPN+ offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content, and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) and can cancel at any time.

For road games, visit MKEPanthers.com for live coverage links.