MILWAUKEE – Horizon League play begins on Friday afternoon for Milwaukee Baseball, as the Panthers visit the Wright State Raiders for the first of three beginning at 2:00 p.m. (CT) at Nischwitz Stadium. Milwaukee and Wright State split their six-game season series a year ago as MKE won all three of their regular season meetings at home.

WEEK AT A GLANCE
Friday, March 15 | Milwaukee at Wright State | Nischwitz Stadium | Dayton, Ohio | 2:00 pm (CT)
Saturday, March 16 | Milwaukee at Wright State | Nischwitz Stadium | Dayton, Ohio | 1:00 pm (CT)
Sunday, March 17 | Milwaukee at Wright State | Nischwitz Stadium | Dayton, Ohio | 12:00 pm (CT)

QUICK LINKS
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Live Stats (All Games): mkepanthers.com/coverage
Follow Along (On X): @MKE_Baseball

LEADING OFF
» Horizon League play begins on Friday as the Panthers visit Wright State for the first of three games at Nischwitz Stadium in Dayton, Ohio. Oakland will visit Northern Kentucky, while Purdue Fort Wayne travels to Youngstown State for their league-opening series.
» Home field advantage was key for the Panthers and Raiders in 2023 as the home team won all eight of their head-to-head matchups. Milwaukee swept Wright State in early April and were swept on the road in mid-May. During postseason play, the Raiders gave Milwaukee both of their losses in the double elimination tournament.
» Milwaukee enters off a 1-3 series at Western Kentucky, which includes a 12-inning win over the Hilltoppers on Saturday. Wright State is riding a seven-game winning streak into this weekend's series including a pair of midweek wins at home against Xavier on Tuesday, and Toledo on Wednesday.
» This is the fifth time that Milwaukee and Wright State have opened the league schedule against one another, with the previous occurrences taking place in 1997, 2002, 2003, 2013, and 2019. All but one of those series (2002) took place in Ohio.

SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE
Horizon League preseason favorite Wright State enters the weekend series with Milwaukee with a 9-7 overall record, including a seven-game winning streak after winning their final game against Memphis, followed by a home-opening win over Miami (Ohio). The Raiders swept Eastern Kentucky in a three-game set last week before adding midweek wins over Xavier and Toledo this week.

In his sixth season as head coach, Alex Sogard leads the Horizon League's highest producing offense with 146 runs in 16 games, with a league-leading .317 team batting average. The fundamentally sound Raiders have only committed 16 errors in as many games defensively with a .972 team fielding percentage.

Seven regulars in the Wright State lineup are hitting .340 or better including league-leader Drew Baker and his .432 batting average. Ben Vore is tied with Sammy Sass as the team leader with 23 RBIs apiece, while Jay Luikart leads the team with 28 hits and has added a team-high six home runs while driving in 21 on the season. Julian Greenwell, Gus Gregory, and Boston Smith have all helped lengthen one of the top lineups in Division I baseball, scoring 9.1 runs per game good enough for 31st out of 295 DI programs.

Pitching is right towards the top of the Horizon League as well, with only Milwaukee's team ERA better as the Panthers lead the league with a 6.12 ERA compared to the 8.00 ERA put up by the Raiders' pitching staff. Wright State has struck out 111 batters, second-best to Northern Kentucky, while only yielding 18 home runs this season.

Jake Shirk leads the Raider staff with a 1-2 record as he holds the team lead in strikeouts with 15 over his 23 innings pitched. The Panthers are also expected to face Ty Roder (0-1, 16.76 ERA) and Josh Laisure (0-1, 7.80 ERA) this weekend after Shirk. The bullpen features Brayden Schoetzow with two saves in 4 2/3 innings, along with Garrett Peters and his 10 innings of relief with 11 strikeouts over nine appearances, with Chris Gallagher striking out seven over his 9 1/3 innings over eight outings.

FIRST WIN FOR WEGNER
Shaun Wegner earned his first collegiate head coaching victory on March 9 with the team's 6-5 extra-inning win over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Wegner becomes the eighth different head coach to record a win since the program's inception in 1957, while he becomes the fifth manager in the team's Division I history (1991-present) to earn a win.

OFFENSE COMING ALIVE
With 26 hits over their last three games, the Milwaukee offense has been starting to put together better at bats after a slow start to 2024. Since the team's doubleheader on March 9, Sean Tillmon and Justin Hausser lead the way with five hits apiece, while Carson Hansen has four. Zach Lane and Q Phillips also have three hits apiece over that stretch.

NOW WALK IT OUT
In the team's March 5 game at UIC, the Panthers drew nine walks against Flames pitching, which was the most for the team in a single game since the last game of the 2022 season, when the Panthers drew 16 walks against Wright State pitching on May 21 of that year.

IN EXTRA INNINGS
Milwaukee is 1-1 in extra-inning games thus far in 2024 and have been right around that mark over that .500 mark the last decade. The Panthers are 15-16-1 in extra-inning games dating back to the 2015 season.

CONSISTENCY AT THE CORNERS
Through the team's first 14 games, only two positions have been handled by one player over the course of the season as Justin Hausser has started every game at first base, while across the way Zach Lane has started every game at third base.

The duo has started in every game but have been shuttled around the batting order with Lane getting 10 starts in the cleanup position, while Hausser has been in the five spot of the lineup on seven occasions, and in the second and third positions on three occasions each.

HANSEL STILL DEALING
Despite getting touched up for four runs at Western Kentucky in his most recent start, Luke Hansel is still among the league leaders in most pitching categories. His 2.28 ERA leads the Horizon League and is 93rd in all of Division I. He is also second in opponents' batting average at .210, second in strikeouts with 23.

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 Conference.

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 head on the road next weekend to take on Northern Kentucky for a three-game series with the Norse beginning on March 22 at 1:00 p.m. (CT) The series will continue Saturday at 12:00 p.m. (CT) and Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (CT).

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.