MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee baseball team finished the regular season with a 23-30 record, as the team reached at least 20 wins for 30th consecutive season, excluding the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign. The team finished with an 11-18 mark in Horizon League contests and will enter the Horizon League Championship as the fifth seed.

Milwaukee will open the tournament in the single-elimination portion of the bracket against fourth-seeded Youngstown State. The third-seeded Northern Kentucky Norse will take on sixth-seeded Purdue Fort Wayne, with the two winners on Wednesday advancing to the double-elimination portion of the bracket joining the top two seeds, Wright State and Oakland.

The entirety of the Horizon League Tournament will be broadcast live on ESPN+, while live stats will also be available at the links found on MKEPanthers.com.

Tickets are available for purchase at the gate of Nischwitz Stadium. All-Tournament passes can be purchased for $25, while day passes are $10. Horizon League students with their ID cards and children under five years old are admitted for free.

QUICK HITS
Milwaukee in the Postseason: 48-42 Overall; 4 Horizon Tournament Championships (1999, 2001, 2002, 2013)
Milwaukee as the No. 5 Seed: 5-4 Overall; 1-2 (2004); 4-2 (2007)

Milwaukee vs. Wright State in 2023: 3-3 Overall; 3-0 at Home; 0-3 on the Road
    All-Time vs. Wright State: 66-79 Overall; 31-23 at Home; 25-43 on the Road; 10-13 Neutral
Milwaukee vs. Oakland in 2023: 2-4 Overall; 1-2 at Home; 1-2 on the Road
    All-Time vs. Oakland: 30-24 Overall; 17-9 at Home; 11-15 on the Road 2-0 Neutral
Milwaukee vs. Northern Kentucky in 2023 » 2-4 Overall » 2-1 at Home » 0-3 on the Road
    All-Time vs. Northern Kentucky: 25-18 Overall; 14-7 at Home; 9-10 on the Road; 2-1 Neutral
Milwaukee vs. Youngstown State in 2023: 1-4 Overall; 1-1 at Home; 0-3 on the Road
    All-Time vs. Youngstown State: 69-46 Overall; 34-13 at Home; 26-26 on the Road; 9-7 Neutral
Milwaukee vs. Purdue Fort Wayne in 2023: 3-3 Overall; 1-2 at Home; 2-1 on the Road
    All-Time vs. Purdue Fort Wayne: 12-11 Overall; 6-6 at Home; 6-5 on the Road

SCOUTING No. 1 WRIGHT STATE
Defending two-time Horizon League Champion Wright State enters the tournament as the top seed for the fifth consecutive season after a 35-20 season and a 22-8 conference record. The Raiders have performed well at home with a 21-3 mark at Nischwitz Stadium, including just one conference loss at home, to Purdue Fort Wayne on March 17.

Offensive cogs Andrew Patrick, Jay Luikart and Sammy Sass lead the unit that has seen seven different players collect at least 34 RBIs. Sebastian Gongora has been one of the top arms in the Horizon League all season with a 9-1 record with a 2.87 ERA in 78 1/3 innings. Jake Shirk and Luke Stofel help lead the top pitching staff in the conference with a 5.04 ERA in 55 games.

SCOUTING No. 2 OAKLAND
Oakland has clinched the second seed for the second-straight season with an 18-12 mark in the Horizon League, while posting a 27-29 overall record.

Ian Cleary and Gabe Lux lead a Golden Grizzly offense that is second in the conference in walks (including 66 by Cleary and Lux) and third in on-base percentage, while the team is in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories. Hunter Pidek emerged as the team's ace midway through conference play and had a 3.74 ERA, while Brandon Decker was one of the league's top relievers with a 4.65 ERA in 23 relief outings this year.

SCOUTING No. 3 NORTHERN KENTUCKY
The Norse love playing in their friendly confines with a 17-8 mark at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex en route to a 29-25 overall record and a 17-13 mark in Horizon League play. The team has limped to the finish line, hwoever, with a 1-5 record over its final six games and fell out of the top two spots in the standings on the final day of the regular season.

Arguably the deepest offensive unit in the field, Colton Kucera and his league-leading .387 average, and Noah Fisher's league-leading 64 runs propel the offense that has scored 439 runs in 54 games. Liam McFadden-Ackman is tied with Fisher for the Horizon lead in RBIs, while Manny Vorhees is always a threat on offense with 12 home runs and 62 RBIs. Clay Brock, Kaden Echeman, and Ben Gerl form a three-headed rotation that finished with a 6.69 team ERA.

SCOUTING No. 4 YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Milwaukee's first round foe is the team that held Milwaukee to the fewest wins in conference series with a 4-1 mark in league games against the Panthers. It was Youngstown's three-game sweep at home vs. Milwaukee that propelled the team to an 11-3 streak down the final few weeks of the season as the team finished 19-35 overall and 13-16 in league games.

Trey Law amassed the most hits in the league with 80, while Steven D'Eusanio, Braeden O'Shaughnessy and Padraig O'Shaughnessy are the team's leaders with 43-plus RBIs apiece. Righthander Travis Perry has been a workhorse for the Penguins with 68 1/3 innings over 13 starts with a 4.61 ERA, while Nick Perez has 69 innings while splitting his time as a starter and a reliever.

SCOUTING No. 6 PURDUE FORT WAYNE
Just like Youngstown State, Purdue Fort Wayne enters postseason play on its hottest stretches of the season as winners of three of its last four games including two wins in Milwaukee. The Mastodons were 13-42 overall on the year with an 8-22 mark in the Horizon League in 2023.

Braedon Blackford and Cade Nelis lead the 'Dons' with batting averages of .300 or better, while Blackford is towards the top of the conference with 61 RBIs and 14 long balls. Nelis is a defensive whiz at second base and scored 40 runs while driving in 20. The PFW staff has statistically been the worst in the conference with an 8.58 team ERA but did strike out 403 batters for fourth most in the league including a team-best 57 from ace Mac Ayres.

HAPPY FREY-DAY
Junior left-hander Riley Frey finished the regular season by leading the Horizon League in innings pitched with 83, while also leading the conference in both overall strikeouts at 81 and strikeouts looking at 32.

It is just the sixth time a Milwaukee pitcher has led the league in strikeouts, with the last coming in 2019, when Jared Reklaitis had 104. It is also the third time a Panther arm has led the conference in innings pitched and first since 1999, when Andy Neary tossed 99 1/3 innings that season.

FIVE FOR FIGHTING
Nick Gilhaus and Luke Hansel battled their way through five innings apiece in their most recent outings against Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Gilhaus had five innings and struck out six batters on Thursday in relief as he allowed just one unearned run, while Hansel got his team-leading sixth win with five scoreless innings against PFW on Friday.

INSIDE THE PARK
In the team's May 9th win over Northwestern last week, Ty Olejnik recorded Milwaukee's only inside-the-park home run of the season in the team's 3-2 win over the Wildcats.

Olejnik is not the only man in the Panther dugout to record an inside the park home run, as Associate Head Coach Shaun Wegner accomplished the feat on May 8, 2010, against Wright State at Nischwitz Stadium in Ohio.

NOVAK'S NIGHT
With three hits and five RBIs in a start on May 5 against Oakland, Jake Novak became the first Panther to have five RBIs in a game, but he also became the first to have at least four in a single contest for Milwaukee this season. The team has had 13 three-RBI performances, including two apiece by Luke Seidel, Marcus Cline, and Carson Hansen.

WALK IT OFF x4
Milwaukee has had four walk-off wins in 2023, (April 7 vs. Wright State, April 21-22 vs. Northern Kentucky, May 5 vs. Oakland); Luke Seidel had two of the four walk-off hits, with Justin Hausser picking up the game-winner on April 22 and Jake Novak securing the game winner on May 5.

After going walk-off-less in 2022, the four walk offs this year were Milwaukee's first walk-off victory since April 11, 2021, when the Panthers had a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning in a 12-8 Horizon League victory over Youngstown State at Franklin Field.

DON'T DO IT…HE DID IT
In an impressive showing on March 24, senior Jack Thelen threw our four attempted baserunners against him in the team's doubleheader against Youngstown State, he also had two caught stealings against Youngstown State on April 29, Oakland on May 7, and Wright State on May 13. On the season, Thelen has thrown out 25 baserunners against to lead the Horizon League.

RUBBER-ARM MAN
Sam Mathews has appeared in 34 games thus far on the season and is currently third in the country in appearances, two shy of tying the national leaders.

The program's single-season appearance leader is Matt Freisleben, who appeared in 37 games during the 2002 season. No pitcher for Milwaukee has appeared in over 32 games in over a decade, when Kaleb Engelke pitched in 32 in 2012.

TOUGH TO STRIKEOUT
Mark Connelly is currently 15th in all of NCAA Division I in the category of 'Toughest to Strikeout' having struck out in only 15 times in 201 at bats. His number is currently leading the Horizon League having struck out in just one of every 13.4 at bats. Aaron Chapman is not far behind and is currently 31st in the nation, striking out just once every 11.3 at bats.

HOME COOKING
With an 9-2 record at Franklin Field to start the season in 2023, the Panthers were off to their best home start since the 2021 season MKE was also 9-2. Milwaukee's best was a perfect 13-0 in home games during the 2013 season.

Under the direction of Scott Doffek, Milwaukee is 194-97 in home games for a .667 winning percentage. Doffek's predecessor, Jerry Augustine posted a 129-60 home mark for a .683 winning percentage. Combined the duo are 323-157 (.673), while the program all time is 343-187 (.647) in home games since the program moved to Division I, competing in its first season in 1991.

HOW SWEEP WAS THAT?
With its sweep of Wright State from April 6-8, Milwaukee notched its first sweep against any conference opponent since late March of 2021, when the Panthers swept Purdue Fort Wayne in the team's facility-opening series at Franklin Field. The sweep was also Milwaukee's first series sweep against Wright State since May 17-19 of 2012, which also came at home in Wisconsin.

THE FIRST CYCLE
Mark Connelly recorded the first-ever cycle in Panther baseball history during the teams win on March 31 over Oakland. Connelly got the more 'difficult' hits out of the way early with a triple in the first inning and a home run in the fifth. He later added the double in the seventh inning and rounded out his cycle with a base knock in the eighth inning.

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, joining current teammates Jake Novak (2 at Alabama A&M, Feb. 19, 2022) and Nate DeYoung (3 at Youngstown State, April 15, 2022; 2 at Northern Kentucky, May 6, 2022) with multi-home run efforts in their careers.

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.

THE STOLEN BASE RACE
In 53 games, Milwaukee's Luke Seidel has stolen 17 bases on the season and currently leads the conference in stolen base percent at 17-for-17, no other player in the Horizon League has more than 14 stolen bases without being caught this season.

SAVING THE DAY
Nate DeYoung recorded a league-best nine saves as Milwaukee has relied heavily on the senior right-hander to lock down nine of the team's 23 wins on the season thus far. DeYoung is currently 24th in NCAA Division I in saves, with the with just 23 pitchers in the country recording at least 10 saves, including the national leaders with 14.

KEEPING IT IN THE PARK
Through the team's 53 games this season, Milwaukee pitching has only allowed 43 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 51 or more home runs. Oakland has allowed the most home runs this season with 82.