LEADING OFF
» Milwaukee plays its 21st consecutive road game to open the season on Tuesday at UIC before making its long-awaited home debut on Thursday vs. Purdue Fort Wayne. The Panther come off a three-game sweep vs. Northern Kentucky this past weekend.
» UIC is 15-7 on the year, including a win vs. Milwaukee on March 5, the Flames opened MVC play this past weekend winning two of three from Belmont.
» Purdue Fort Wayne is 9-16 on the year with a 3-3 mark in Horizon Games, the Mastodons went 1-2 at home vs. Wright State and will take on Western Michigan on Tuesday before heading to Milwaukee.

SCOUTING UIC
Since March 3, the Flames have gone 10-2 to add to their 15-7 record to start the season, including UIC's 10-7 win over Milwaukee on March 5. Sean McDermott's squad boasts a 7-1 record at home this season and will host the Panthers in advance of a key Missouri Valley series at Indiana State this weekend.

The Flames are currently tops in the Missouri Valley with a .310 batting average as a team and are the league leaders with 12 triples on the year. UIC is in the middle of the pack when it comes to scoring runs as they are fifth in the 10-team league and the team is also ninth in the conference in home runs. Zane Zielinski leads the MVC in batting average at .410 on the season, while Pambros Nicoloudes is third at .395 on the year. James Harris has driven in a team-best 26 runs, while Zielinski leads the Flames with 23 runs scored.

Brandon Bak has been the ace of the UIC staff this season with a league-leading 40 2/3 innings pitched, while he is also sixth in the league with a 3.54 ERA. Bak is also third in the MVC with 35 strikeouts. While the Panthers are not expecting to see Bak on Tuesday, the Flames currently hold a 5.93 ERA in 22 games this season including a pair of shutouts. Reece Lawler has a league-best five saves for UIC and has a 3.07 ERA in 13 outings in 2024.

In their meeting earlier this season, the Panthers saw seven pitchers, including starter Zac Gould, who threw two innings and allowed one run, while Zack Millsap pitched a game-high 2 1/3 innings against MKE, and allowed three Panther runs. Harris had five RBIs against Milwaukee pitching on March 5, while Zielinski drove in a pair while going 3-for-4 at the plate.

This will be the second of three meetings between the former Horizon League foes, as the scene will shift to Franklin Field later this season on April 16.

SCOUTING PURDUE FORT WAYNE
After finishing last in the 2023 Horizon League standings, Purdue Fort Wayne has put together a solid start through the first two weeks of league play and are currently in third with a 3-3 league record, while the Mastodons are 9-16 overall, including two wins over Missouri, and a win over Indiana earlier this season. The Dons started league play 2-1 at Youngstown State but went 1-2 at home against Wright State this past weekend.

Skipper Doug Schreiber enters his fifth season at the helm of the Mastodons and has helped the team boost their team batting average by more than 30 points since taking over. Excluding the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, Schreiber's first full season in 2021 saw Purdue Fort Wayne hit .251 as a squad, the number improved each season (.253 in 2022 and .263 in 2023) before the 2024 campaign, where PFW is hitting .286 this year.

Newcomer Justin Osterhouse has been a major addition to the Mastodon starting lineup with a team-leading .413 batting average with 38 hits, including six doubles and a team-leading eight home runs and 30 RBIs. After playing at separate junior colleges in 2022 and putting together solid first years together with Purdue Fort Wayne in 2023, Jacob Walker and Grant Thoroman have gotten their 2024 seasons off to tremendous starts with Walker hitting at a .372 clip with a team-best nine doubles, while Thoroman has a .345 batting average this season in 84 at bats. Despite a low batting average, Ben Higgins is a major power threat in the Mastodon lineup with five round trippers in 2024 and has 25 home runs in two-plus years at PFW.

Pitching for Purdue Fort Wayne has been towards the bottom of the Horizon League, as the team has accumulated a 9.73 ERA through its first 25 games. The staff has allowed a league-worst 285 hits this season including a league-low 35 home runs. Teams are hitting .340 against Mastodon pitching, while PFW arms have given up 143 walks.

The Panthers are expecting to see Mac Ayres, Carter Sabol, and Sean Kasper this weekend, a trio of right-handers. Sabol is second in the league in ERA with a 4.55 while he is holding opponents to a .254 batting average against. Sabol is also top-five in the league in strikeouts with 29 on the year. Ayres has a 10.50 ERA in six starts and eight outings, while Kasper has an 8.10 ERA in nine outings, and four starts including seven earned runs over his 7 1/3 innings in two league starts at YSU and home against Wright State.

Kevin Fee has seen the most outings on the mound for the Mastodons with appearances in 13 games while posting a 2-0 record with a pair of saves. Fee has a 4.94 ERA in 23 2/3 innings, with 19 strikeouts. Owen Willard (9.69 ERA), Drew Evans (10.32 ERA), Carson Caudill (10.95 ERA), Josh Kuhns (11.25 ERA), and Jake Paymaster (11.30 ERA), are also regular arms for Purdue Fort Wayne out of the bullpen.

HISTORY VERSUS…
Milwaukee is 65-95 in 160 all-time meetings against UIC and have currently dropped four consecutive games to the Flames. The Panthers are just 34-48 in true road games against UIC in their Division I history.

The Panthers are 12-11 in matchups against Purdue Fort Wayne in the Mastodons' brief Division I history. The Panthers are 6-6 in home contests against the Mastodons, while they are 6-5 all-time in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Last season the two sides split their six regular season games with the road team taking 2-of-3 from their opponents' home field.

At Franklin Field in 2023, the Panthers fell by one run in the opener, 4-3, as PFW built a 3-0 lead in the third before Milwaukee scored two runs late in the eighth, unable to complete the comeback. The Panthers returned the favor in the second game, taking a 3-0 lead after two and pouring additional runs on late for a 7-1 victory. The third game was scoreless heading to the fifth inning before PFW broke through first with two in the fifth and scored nine unanswered en route to a 9-3 victory.

DOUBLES LEADER
After entering play last week in a three-way tie for the Horizon League lead with nine doubles, Carson Hansen continues to perform well and added his 10th double of the season against Northern Kentucky. With his 10th double, he now leads the league in doubles with three others just one behind in a tie for second. Liam McFadden-Ackman or Northern Kentucky, Sammy Sass of Wright State, and Jacob Walker of Purdue Fort Wayne each enter the week with nine doubles apiece.

TOPS IN PITCHING
Milwaukee's pitching staff continues to be the Horizon League leaders with a team ERA of 7.31 with Northern Kentucky second in the conference with a 7.59 team ERA. Luke Hansel is top among pitchers that qualify for the individual lead in ERA with a 3.28 on the season followed by Adrian Montilva in third at 4.81, and Logan Snow is fifth at 5.64.

The trio for the Panthers are in the top-four in the league in opponents' batting average; Hansel (1st, .214), Montilva (2nd, .237), Snow (4th, .242). Hansel is also second in the league in innings pitched at 35 2/3, while he is also the conference's strikeout leader with 34 on the year including seven strikeouts looking.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
With 19 runs in the team's Horizon League victory over Wright State, the Panthers scored their most runs in a game since the 2021 season. Milwaukee scored 21 runs in a home game against Oakland on May 1, while it was the most games the Panthers scored in a road game since March 21, 2021, with a 19-run effort at Northern Kentucky.

With 19 runs against the Raiders, the mark tied the most runs that the Panthers have scored against Wright State. The only other occasion that Milwaukee scored 19 runs against Wright State came back on May 5, 2001, in a 19-2 win in Dayton, Ohio.

FIVE FOR HANSEN
With five hits against Wright State on March 16, Carson Hansen joined elite company in program history becoming just the 22nd player to record five hits in a single game, including the first since May 24, 2012. Among Hansen's five hits, three were doubles as the sophomore tied the program mark for double in a single contest, most recently completed in 2018 by Tyler Bordner on May 23 of that season.

LONG-RELIEF WINS
With five innings of relief on March 16, Logan Snow recorded his first win with the Panthers as he struck out five Raiders along the way. The feat of five-plus relief innings and a win occurred twice in 2023 as Nick Gilhaus pitched 6 2/3 innings against Minnesota in a 3-0 win on March 1, while Eliot Turnquist did not allow a run over six innings against Wright State at home on April 8.

FIVE-GAME STRETCH OF RUNS
Over Milwaukee's five games from the second game of the team's doubleheader at Western Kentucky (March 9) through the March 17 game at Wright State, the Panthers scored 46 runs. It was the highest offensive output for the team since Milwaukee scored 47 runs over a five-game stretch from March 19 through April 1 in the 2022 season.

NOW WALK IT OUT
Milwaukee has drawn at least nine walks in two games already in 2024, including a season-high 10 in the team's 19-6 win over Wright State on March 16. In the team's March 5 game at UIC, the Panthers drew nine walks against Flames pitching.

The highest amount of walks that Milwaukee drew in 2023 was eight at Youngstown State on April 30, while Milwaukee has not drawn at least nine walks in a game since May 21, 2022, when they drew 16 walks against Wright State pitching in the final game of the regular season.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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
Milwaukee continues its stay at home after the Purdue Fort Wayne series with first-time opponent St. Thomas on Monday, April 1, with first pitch slated for 4:05 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The team will take a quick trip to former Horizon League foe Valparaiso on Tuesday, April 2 before returning home for a three-game series against Oakland beginning on Friday, April 5 at 3:05 p.m.

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 $10.99 a month (or $109.99 per year) and can cancel at any time. For road games, visit MKEPanthers.com for live coverage links.

BLACK & GOLD ON DEMAND
In addition to live coverage of all Panther home games, Panther fans can also re-live all of the action by listening to archived games on the Black & Gold Radio Network. All games are chronicled at mke-panthers.mixlr.com/recordings.