MILWAUKEE – The Panthers head back to the West Coast as Milwaukee will take on first-time foe Long Beach State in a three-game series beginning on March 1 at 8:00 p.m. (CT). Milwaukee enters off of a three-game sweep at the hands of Texas Rio Grande Valley last weekend. The series will continue at 8:00 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, followed by a 2:00 p.m. (CT) first pitch on Sunday, with the series finale available on ESPN+.

WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, March 1 | Milwaukee at Long Beach State | Bohl Diamond at Blair Field | Long Beach, Calif. | 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 2 | Milwaukee at Long Beach State | Bohl Diamond at Blair Field | Long Beach, Calif. | 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 3 | Milwaukee at Long Beach State | Bohl Diamond at Blair Field | Long Beach, Calif. | 2:00 p.m.

QUICK LINKS
ESPN+ (Sunday's Game Only): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Live Stats (All Games): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Follow Along (On X): @MKE_Baseball

LEADING OFF
» The Panthers played a three-game series at Texas Rio Grande Valley this past weekend, dropping the opening two games in two-run decisions (2-0, 3-1) before the Vaqueros won the third game 15-3.
» Luke Hansel pitched well in the opener striking out nine batters to tie his career high. He shutout UTRGV for the first five innings before allowing a run in the sixth. Hansel leads the Horizon League with 15 strikeouts after two outings.
» Long Beach comes into the series at 5-1-1 after paying a visit to UCLA on Wednesday before hosting the Panthers this week. The team swept a three-game set from Omaha last weekend, with 13-10, 6-0, and 4-1 wins over the series, before falling to the Bruins, 12-11.
» Pitching has been a major strength for Long Beach in the early going as the staff has an ERA of 3.34, while the team's WHIP of 1.14 ranks in the top-20 nationally.
» This weekend's series will be the first-ever meeting between Milwaukee and Long Beach State, the Panthers are 0-10 against the members that currently comprise the Big West.

SCOUTING LONG BEACH STATE
Long Beach enters the week with a 5-1-1 record, most recently playing UCLA in an extra-inning loss on Wednesday, 12-11. Last weekend, the Dirtbags swept Omaha in a three-game series, including an extra-inning victory in the opener. The team has been relying upon their strong pitching staff early, as Long Beach has a 2.43 ERA with 75 strikeouts over 63 innings of work.

Based on last week's starters, Milwaukee is anticipating seeing CJ Hood, who pitched the first four innings of the 11-inning game and allowed one earned run while striking out six batters. Myles Patton struck out seven batters over his six shutout innings, as four pitchers combined on a shutout in a 4-0 win to clinch the series. On Sunday, Long Beach got the brooms out and took care of Omaha in another strong showing, as Kellan Montgomery went the first seven innings and allowed just an unearned run with seven strikeouts. Grant Cherry and Mike Villani have recorded saves for a stout Long Beach bullpen.

Offensively, the Dirtbags have outscored their opponents by a 62-53 margin in the first two-plus weeks of the season. Cole Santander leads the offense with nine hits including a double and two home runs, while he also leads the team with 11 RBIs. Ty Borgogno gets the offense going at the top and leads the team with seven runs scored. Kyle Ashworth and Adrian Lopez have five RBIs in the early-going of the season, while Nick Marinconz has driven in four.

Bryan Peters serves as the interim head coach for Long Beach State after serving as the Associate Head Coach for the previous four seasons. Since joining the staff, Peters has helped ignite the Long Beach offense with 149 home runs, including four this season, which had been more than the previous nine seasons combined.

LEADING THE PACK
Through his first two starts this season, Luke Hansel leads the Horizon League with 15 strikeouts over his first 15 innings. Milwaukee is no stranger in having the Horizon League leader in strikeouts at the end of the season as well, since 1999 the Panthers have had five pitchers lead the league in strikeouts, second to Youngstown State, who has had the individual leader in strikeouts six times over that span.

PICKING RIGHT BACK UP
After hitting .357 as a freshman in limited action and hitting .292 before a season-ending injury in early May in 2023, Justin Hausser is leading the Panthers on offense with a .364 batting average including a team-best mark in hits (8), doubles (2), total bases (10), slugging percentage (.455), and on-base percentage (.364). Hausser also has an .819 OPS. He ranks among the conference leaders in average, hits, and doubles.

SNOW DAY
Saturday's have been days that has seen newcomer Logan Snow follow Adrian Montilva out of the bullpen as the Panthers replace their 5-10 left-handed starter with a 6-6 right-handed reliever to keep hitters off-balance. In two outings, Snow has tossed seven innings with six strikeouts, he allowed just one hit over 4 1/3 innings of work on February 24 at Texas Rio Grande Valley and equaled his mark of three strikeouts from his Panther debut on February 17.

TOP FIVE IN HORIZON
Milwaukee's pitching has been off to a solid start in 2024, with a Horizon League-leading team earned run average. The Panthers are scattered in the top-five in several pitching categories within the league as Luke Hansel leads in strikeouts (15), is second in strikeouts looking (4), innings pitched (11.0), and earned run average (1.64).

Gavin Theis leads the league in strikeouts looking at five and is fourth in opponents' batting average at .206. Adrian Montilva is third in the conference in strikeouts with eight and is also second in the Horizon with a .182 batting average against. Logan Snow is fifth individually in earned run average at 3.86 on the young season.

TEXAS-SIZED DEBUTS
Milwaukee had several Panthers make their debuts on Sunday at UTRGV, newcomer Camden Kuhnke made his collegiate debut as a true freshman, while Logan Dobberstein made his Panther debut after spending his first collegiate season at Kansas State. Ben Buehring made his Milwaukee debut as a pinch hitter and drew a walk on Sunday.

Tyler Deleskiewicz made his season debut on the mound, while Andrew Jimenez made his first career start in his third season with the Panthers, serving as designated hitter in the series finale.

UNABLE TO DIAL UP A ZERO AFTER ONE
Milwaukee has scored runs in the top half of the first inning on three occasions this season but have been unable to back up the effort with a response from its pitching staff. The Panthers scored a run in the first inning during the second game at Fresno State, and both the second and third games at UTRGV, giving up the lead on all three instances in the bottom half of those frames.

WEEKEND OF FIRSTS
Seven Panthers recorded their first hits in Milwaukee uniforms against Fresno State in the season-opening series, while Tyler Bickers, Teige Lethert, and Sean Tillmon also recorded their first Milwaukee RBIs. Collecting hits were Zach Lane, Q Phillips, Tai Walton, and Gabe Roessler, including a double for Lane and a Bickers triple.

Also making their collegiate debuts last week were Riley Peterson, who struck out one batter over 1 2/3 innings, while Tristan Arnold went 1 1/3 scoreless innings at Fresno State on Sunday.

BICKERS IN THE OPENER
With his two-run triple in the season opener on February 16 at Fresno State, Tyler Bickers became the first Panther to hit a triple in a season opener since the 2021 season, when Marcus Cline hit a three-base hit in the seventh inning of the opener at the University of Kentucky.

He also became the first Panther to record three RBIs in a season opener since the 2022 opener, when Luke Seidel (4), and Mitchell Buban (3) had three or more RBIs in the first game of the season.

NEW LOOK LINEUP
Milwaukee's lineup needed to be completely revamped and retooled following the departure of one of the largest graduating groups in program history, including nine players that started in at least 30 games for the Black & Gold in 2023. Included in those that left the program were Horizon League All-First Team selection Aaron Chapman, as well as second teamer Mark Connelly, while Connelly along with Marcus Cline were both named to the All-Tournament team as the trio made up three-fourths of the Panther starting infield.

Staples Luke Seidel, Ty Olejnik locked down left and centerfield respectively, while Tommy Benson and Jake Novak split time in right field through the duration of the season. Milwaukee's five-plus season backstop Jack Thelen was a Horizon League Second Team honoree last year and was just as dangerous defensively as he was at the plate. Nate DeYoung was a two-way threat for the Panthers as Milwaukee's primary designated hitter, as well as the top closer in the conference with his league-leading nine saves.

Starting first baseman Justin Hausser suffered an injury in early May, short-circuiting his bid for a spot on the All-Conference team. The junior will be the lynchpin in the Panther lineup to bridge the gap from last year's team to this year's team as he plans to be back at full strength heading into his 2024 campaign.

TRANSFER HAVEN
Milwaukee's incoming class of 15 included 11 transfers from varying levels of baseball, as the crop of newcomers will look to make an impact on the Panther lineup and pitching staff immediately.

Making their way to Milwaukee from Division I programs are pitcher Logan Dobberstein from Kansas State, third baseman Zach Lane from Ball State, outfielders Dallan Quigley from North Dakota State and Tai Walton from the University of Hawai'I, as well as pitcher Isaac Wenzel from Indiana State.

NAIA transfer Logan Snow from Menlo College will wrap up his career with the Panthers. Junior college transfers in infielders Tyler Bickers of John Wood College, and Gabe Roessler from Madison College, along with catcher Teige Lethert from Iowa Central are all expected to see playing time for MKE in 2024.

Infielder/outfielder Sean Tillmon, formerly of Concordia Wisconsin, and catcher Ben Buehring, formerly of Marian (Wis.) were conference opponents in the Division III Northern Athletics Collegiate Confernece.

The 11 transfers join Luke Hansel, Caleb Lorbecki, Adrian Montilva, Q Phillips, Owen Rice, and Mike Sullivan who has all transferred to Milwaukee over the last few seasons.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Milwaukee welcomes in four true freshmen to the team in 2024, three of which hail from the state of Wisconsin. Tristan Arnold is a pitcher from Mukwonago, while Riley Peterson hails from Verona and is a left-handed slinger. Two-way player Camden Kuhnke will play infield and pitch for the Panthers, with Cole Spitzer rounding out the four-man class as a lefty pitcher from St. Paul, Minnesota.

RACKING UP THOSE MILEAGE POINTS
This season, Milwaukee will visit California, Kentucky, and Illinois twice, as well as Texas and Ohio during the first six-plus weeks of the season before playing in their first home game against Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday, March 28. In total, the Panthers will travel a total of 14,548 miles from campus to campus before opening the home portion of their schedule.

NEW ON THE DOCKET
Milwaukee will meet several opponents for the first-time ever in their Division I history beginning with the season-opening series at Fresno State. The Panthers will also meet Texas Rio Grande Valley from February 23-25, Long Beach State from March 1-3, and St. Thomas at home on April 1 as first-time foes in 2024.

SOME BIG OPPONENTS
After going 2-2 against their four Big Ten opponents last year, the Panthers will take on both Iowa and Northwestern for the third consecutive season, while also facing Michigan for just the second-ever occurrence and first time since 2009.

Last year the Panthers split a home-and-home series with Northwestern, as the home team won each time, while the Panthers fell to Iowa on the road. Milwaukee blanked Minnesota early in the season by a 3-0 score on March 1.

DOUBLEHEADER WITH THE CREW
Through a marketing agreement between the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Brewers, the Panthers have been able to host 31 games at American Family Field, formerly Miller Park, since the 2002 season. During the team's 31 games, Milwaukee has gone 20-11, including last season's win over Milwaukee School of Engineering.

This year, the Panthers will meet the Raiders on April 17 with first pitch slated for 5:05 pm, earlier in the day the Brewers will host the San Diego Padres in a clash of National League foes beginning at 12:10 pm at American Family Field.

NO CHANGES ON THE HORIZON
This is the second consecutive season that the Horizon League will be comprised of six teams following the departure of UIC in 2022. The membership has fluctuated going back to 2016 with the additions of Northern Kentucky in 2016, and Purdue Fort Wayne in 2021, while Valparaiso departed in 2018 and UIC left following the 2022 season.

PRESEASON POLL
The Horizon League announced its preseason poll prior to the start of the season with Milwaukee projected to finish in fourth place in the six-team league accumulating 16 points.

Wright State was named league favorite with 34 points, followed by Northern Kentucky with 28 and Oakland with 22. The Panthers finished ahead of Youngstown State (15 points), and Purdue Fort Wayne (11) to round out the league projections.

UP NEXT
The Panthers next game will not require a flight as Milwaukee visits UIC for a 4:00 p.m. start at UIC on Tuesday, March 5. The team will play Western Kentucky for a four-game set beginning on Friday, March 8.

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 17 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.