Wednesday vs. MSOE | T-Shirt Giveaway (First 50 Fans)
Saturday vs. Wright State | Residence Life Day

SCOUTING MSOE
Coming off a weekend sweep over No. 8 Benedictine, the MSOE Raiders at 15-8, 9-3 NACC will play conference foe Edgewood on Tuesday at home before making their way to American Family Field on Wednesday. The Raiders are led by Panther alumnus, Steve Sanfilippo, who is now in his 11th season as head coach at MSOE.

Sanfilippo had 282 at bats with the Panthers from 2003-05 and hit .262 with two home runs and 34 RBIs during his playing career with the Black and Gold. He leads a team that enters the week with a .323 team batting average, which is currently 36th in Division III. The Raiders are 8th in Division III in fielding percentage, having committed just 19 errors as a team this season with a .975 fielding percentage.

Eight players have at least 10 RBIs on the season led by Sam Meidenbauer with 28 as he also holds the team lead with five home runs. Blake Hall is hitting .379 with 22 RBIs and has a team-high 33 hits, while Collin Truitt has 20 RBIs with three home runs. Kyle Labedz leads the Raiders in hitting this season with a .382 batting average.

The Raiders as a team have a small but effective pitching staff with six pitchers accounting for 89 percent of the innings pitched by MSOE arms this season. Tyler Gronert leads the staff with a 3-1 record and a 2.74 ERA, while Nolan Vincent (3-2, 3.63 ERA) and Caden Morton (2-0, 5.52 ERA) have been regular conference starters for the Raiders. AJ Hamilton has two saves on the year, while Zach Brzezinski has six relief outings and a 2.70 ERA on the season.

MSOE received one first-place vote in the NACC preseason poll and were selected to finish third among the league's 13 head coaches and sports information directors.

This is the third consecutive season that the Panthers and Raiders have met at American Family Field, the Panthers own a 9- record against MSOE including a 7-0 record in games where the Panthers are considered the home team. Milwaukee visited MSOE in 2022, while they played a neutral site game in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2019 on the campus of Carthage College.

SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE
Wright State makes their way to Milwaukee this weekend looking to avenge the three-game sweep at the hands of the Panthers last season. The Panthers also gave Wright State their first of five Horizon League losses this season as the Raiders made their way through the first half of Horizon League play with a 10-5 mark, while going 20-15 overall in games this season. The Raiders visit Ohio State on Tuesday evening before making their way to Wisconsin.

Wright State is in the top-10 in numerous offensive categories under sixth year head coach Alex Sogard, including the ninth-best scoring offense in the nation with an average of 9.6 runs per game. The team leads the Horizon League and are eighth nationally in hits with 403, while the team loves the long ball and is 10th in home runs with 70 this season.

Sammy Sass is hitting over .400 this season at .402 with 53 hits including 16 doubles and nine home run as he has driven in 46 runs this season. Jay Luikart leads the team with 55 hits as well as home runs (14) and RBIs (51), while Ben Vore is right among the team leaders with 48 RBIs. Boston Smith has been a staple in the Raider lineup and continues to produce with 40 hits already on the year including 13 home runs and 35 RBIs.

Nate Manley was forced into the lineup due to injuries when the Panthers visited Wright State on March 15, and he has 23 hits in 45 at bats for a .511 average with 18 RBIs in just 14 game this season. Andrew Patrick was one of those players bitten by the injury bug having missed all of Wright State's March contests but has returned to the lineup in April and has 11 hits in 46 at bats having played in just 13 games thus far on the season.

Wright State pitching has been a struggle this season, but their offense has been able to cover for the staff's 8.83 ERA. Jake Shirk is Wright State's ace with two wins in eight starts and has struck out 31 batters over 41 innings with a 7.24 ERA. Garret Simpson has two wins in seven starts this year with a 9.96 ERA, while the team's most recent Sunday starter, Chet Lax, has an 8.49 ERA in 29 2/3 innings. In Ohio earlier this season, the Panthers saw Josh Laisure (0-1, 10.13 ERA) and Ty Roder (1-2, 11.12 ERA) on Saturday and Sunday.

Four pitchers have picked up at least one save for the Raiders out of the bullpen including two each from Brayden Schoetzow (1-0, 3.86 ERA) and Garrett Peters (2-0, 5.40 ERA). Griffen Paige (1-0, 3.97 ERA) has made six appearances on the year, while Cam Allen (0-0, 4.50 ERA) has also seen time in six games out of the bullpen for Wright State.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
On Tuesday, the Horizon League announced that Milwaukee ace Luke Hansel was named as the Pitcher of the Week. It was the first time that Hansel received the distinction from the conference following his performance at Youngstown State.

In his outing against the Penguins, Hansel struck out seven batters over seven innings of work and only allowed one run en route to his second pitching victory of the season.

LAST SERIES AT THE PLATE
Milwaukee outscored the Penguins by a 28-16 margin in the trio of games in Northeast Ohio over the weekend, Milwaukee's catching duo of Teige Lethert and Thomas Otto led the team with a combined 7-for-13 effort as Lethert drove in one and Otto plated another.

Zach Lane and Q Phillips each drove in five runs during the series with the Penguins, while Carson Hansen continued to stay hot with another pair of home runs as he drove in four. Gabe Roessler picked up four RBIs on the weekend, while Justin Hausser continues to enjoy the second spot in the Milwaukee lineup with four runs scored as he collected seven hits on the series.

LAST SERIES ON THE MOUND
On the bump, Milwaukee had strong pitching throughout the series led by Luke Hansel and his seven-inning outing with seven strikeouts to set the tone early in the series.

Adrian Montilva struck out five and was an out shy of qualifying for the win on Saturday, while Logan Snow followed Montilva's performance with 4 1/3 shutout innings as he notched the victory.

Keagon Kaufmann had a pair of outings over the weekend and struck out one over a combined 3 2/3 innings, while Logan Dobberstein and Johnny Kelliher each had a scoreless inning apiece.

TOPS IN PITCHING
Milwaukee's pitching staff continues to be the Horizon League leaders with a team ERA of 6.34 with Oakland second in the conference with a 7.19 team ERA. Luke Hansel is top among pitchers that qualify for the individual lead in ERA with a 2.78 on the season followed by Adrian Montilva in second at 3.83, and Logan Snow is fifth at 5.01.

The trio for the Panthers is in the top-four in the league in opponents' batting average; Hansel (1st, .208), Montilva (3rd, .232), Snow (4th, .236). Hansel is also second in the league in innings pitched at 55, while he also leads the conference in strikeouts with 50. Montilva is tied for second in the league with 47 strikeouts, while he has caught 13 batters looking at strike three.

THREE-GAME STRETCH FOR MONTILVA
Adrian Montilva recorded 26 strikeouts over a three-game span with eight against Northern Kentucky, a career-high 10 versus Purdue Fort Wayne before securing another eight against Oakland on April 6. With his total over three games, it was the most since 2018 when Austin Schulfer struck out 32 over a three-game stretch from March 30 to April 21. Schulfer had eight strikeouts against Oakland, followed by 15 against Northern Kentucky before wrapping up the stretch with nine strikeouts versus Youngstown State.

On March 30, Montilva tossed the 42nd game in program history that has seen a pitcher strikeout at least 10 batters in a game. He became the first to reach the 10-strikeout plateau since Riley Frey accomplished the feat on April 6, 2023, with a 10-strikeout game at home against Wright State.

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
Carson Hansen had five hits against Wright State on March 16, in doing so he 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.

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.

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 5:35 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 will head on the road following this weekend's home series with Wright State, as the Panthers will take on the Iowa Hawkeyes on April 23 with first pitch at 6:00 p.m. Milwaukee returns home to Franklin Field on Friday, April 26 to start a three-game Horizon League series with Northern Kentucky. The NKU series will begin the first of five-straight home games for the Panthers.

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 the action by listening to archived games on the Black & Gold Radio Network. All games are chronicled at mke-panthers.mixlr.com/recordings.