Tuesday vs. Parkside | Little League Night
Wednesday vs. Northern Illinois | Gold Out, Mental Health Awareness Game

SCOUTING PARKSIDE
Second-year head coach Zac Charbonneau as done yeoman's work in turning around a program that had won just five games in 2022 prior to his arrival. After a 13-win inaugural campaign, the former head coach of the Milwaukee Tech Stormers of the NJCAA, has eclipsed 20 wins at Parkside for the first time since 2006, when the team was 25-30.

The Rangers (21-22, 10-15) are fourth of six teams in the GLIAC with 286 runs scored, while the team is fifth in the league in team batting average at .273. On the mound, Parkside has a league-worst 7.53 earned run average while striking out 307 batters and allowing 363 runs over 356 innings of work. Parkside also has a league-worst .952 fielding percentage in just over 1,500 defensive chances.

Players to Watch: Peter Fusek (.308 AVG, 8 Doubles, 2 HRs, 24 RBIs); John St. Clair (.278 AVG, 6 Doubles, 23 RBIs); Owen Brock (.257 AVG, 4 HR, 23 RBIs)

Pitchers to Watch: Kaleb Schulist (5-2, 5.32 ERA); Leo Burger (3-0, 5 Saves, 1.90 ERA); Austin Grube (4-0, 4.33 ERA); Peter Fusek (2-1, 2 Saves, 5.51 ERA)

SCOUTING NORTHERN ILLINOIS
After a 10-win season in 2023, the Huskies have already exceeded that number with 15 wins under first-year skipper Ryan Copeland. The Huskies have posted nine of their 15 wins in Mid-American Conference play including two of three this past weekend against Central Michigan. Northern Illinois currently sits in seventh place in the league standings, knocking on the door of a playoff position as they are just 2.5 games back of sixth-seeded Toledo with three weeks left in league play.

The Huskies (15-28, 9-12 MAC) have played their best baseball of late with four wins in their last seven games. NIU has had several mutual opponents as Milwaukee with a loss to Iowa (14-6), win over Northwestern (17-8), and loss to UIC (5-4). The Panthers have a loss to Iowa (12-6), have not yet played Northwestern (May 8), and played UIC twice (10-7 and 11-1 losses).

Players to Watch: Eric Erato (.352 AVG, 10 Doubles, 21 RBIs); Colin Summerhill (.272 AVG, 18 HRs, 49 RBIs); Mason Kelly (.233 AVG, 10 Doubles, 5 HRs, 32 RBIs)

Pitchers to Watch: Sam Pederson (0-1, 4.50 ERA); Adam Brouwer (5-5, 6.35 ERA); Ryan Linkletter (0-0, 9.35 ERA); Tommy Meyer (0-5, 10.24 ERA)

SCOUTING PURDUE FORT WAYNE
After picking up just one win in Milwaukee during the team's three-game set in Wisconsin in late March, the Mastodons are just 5-10 since playing the Panthers and are now sitting at 15-28 overall with an 8-13 mark in the Horizon League and are just one game behind the Panthers ahead of their upcoming three-game set in Indiana.

The Dons are last in the league in hitting with a .265 average, while they have scored the fourth-most runs in the league with 385 on the year before they welcome in the Panthers this weekend. Purdue Fort Wayne has also amassed a 7.63 ERA as a team, currently fourth-best in the league, which is led by Milwaukee's 6.60 team ERA.

Players to Watch: Justin Osterhouse (.390, 9 HR, 34 RBIs); Jacob Walker (.325, 16 Doubles, 22 RBIs); Grant Thoroman (.294, 5 HRs, 28 RBIs); Ben Higgins (.270, 7 HRs, 31 RBIs)

Pitchers to Watch: Kevin Fee (5-1, 3.05 ERA); Carter Sabol (4-5, 5.77 ERA); Mac Ayres (1-5, 7.61 ERA); Sean Kasper (1-1, 7.99 ERA); Brody Fine (1-5, 10.00 ERA).

LAST SERIES AT THE PLATE
Milwaukee's bats were hot again this week as the team batting average increased 12 percentage points to .372, while the squads slugging percentage went up 16 points, and on-base percentage jumped up 15 points.

Against Northern Kentucky this past weekend, Justin Hausser led the way by going 7-for-12 at the plate (.583 AVG), while Tyler Bickers also hit .500 at 6-for-12. Carson Hansen had eight RBIs on two swings of the bat, while Gabe Roessler drove in five runs while Sean Tillmon and Bickers each had four runs driven in. Hausser and Teige Lethert combined to score 11 of Milwaukee's 37 runs against the Norse.

LAST SERIES ON THE MOUND
Luke Hansel struck out eight in the opener against Northern Kentucky, but Milwaukee was unable to come out on top in a back-and-forth slugfest that saw Northern Kentucky come out on top 14-10.

Adrian Montilva pitched well in the second game of the series, as he gutted his way through 6 2/3 innings on 116 pitches as he earned his second win of the season. Logan Snow tossed the remaining 2 1/3 innings following Montilva and did not allow a run as he struck out one.

After Owen Rice got off to a torrid start in the opener of game three on Saturday afternoon with six strikeouts through 2 1/3 innings, Gavin Theis allowed just one earned run over the final 4 2/3 innings as he struck out two to earn his first win of the season.

HANSEN NAMED BATTER OF THE WEEK
For the first time in his career, Milwaukee sophomore Carson Hansen was selected as the Horizon League Batter of the Week as he went 8-for-16 and drove in 11 runs with five doubles including four in the team's series at home against Wright State. That week he had an .813 slugging percentage and a .476 on-base percentage.

DEFENSE STEPPING UP
After committing 29 defensive miscues in their first 22 game (3-19 record), the Panthers have only committed 11 errors in games since then helping lead to a 9-9 record.

BATTING AVERAGE BOOSTERS
In 21 Horizon League games this season, the Panthers have upped their season batting average as a squad. As a team, Milwaukee has a .311 batting average in league games compared to a .272 mark overall this season.

Leading the way in bumping that mark is Carson Hansen who is hitting .393 in league games (.307 overall), while Tyler Bickers (.386 in HL Games/.320 Overall), Justin Hausser (.391/.341), Zach Lane (.314/.296), Gabe Roessler (.307/.225), and Q Phillips (.315/.294) are all hitting at least 10 percentage points better in league games than total games in 2024.

JOHNNY ON THE SPOT
With a win and a save at home against Wright State, junior left-hander Johnny Kelliher thrown three innings of scoreless ball while he has not allowed an earned run since March 30 against Purdue Fort Wayne. Since that outing, Kelliher has lowered his season ERA from 15.43 to 8.79.

Kelliher got a key strikeout to end the eighth inning on April 21 against Wright State before getting a double play ball to end the game for his first career save.

CARSON HANSEN: DOUBLES MACHINE
With three more doubles this past week, Carson Hansen now has a Horizon League-leading 20 two-base hits on the season. Hansen has tied the program record twice this season with three doubles at Wright State on March 16, and again on April 20 at home versus the Raiders.

The last Panther to record at least 20 doubles in a single season was Trevor Schwecke, who finished the 2019 campaign with 20. The program record for doubles in a season is 28 set by Jesse Hart during the 2008 season.

ROESSLER'S ON-BASE PACE
Gabe Roessler enters the week having safely reached base in 25 consecutive games. Since 2006, that is the 28th occurrence of a Panther reaching base in at least 20 consecutive games, as he joins teammate Justin Hausser, who had a 21-game on-base streak in 2023.

Since 2006, only four players have ever had streaks of at least 30 consecutive games of getting on base including Mike Goetz in 2006 (57 games), Daulton Varsho in 2017 (41), Ryan Solberg in 2014 (37), and Rob Brockel in 2007 (34).

HANSEL LEADS THE ARMS RACE
Luke Hansel has arguably been the best starting pitcher among the six Horizon League teams this season as Milwaukee's right-handed ace leads the league with a 3.56 ERA, with teammate Adrian Montilva third in the league at 4.74. Hansel also has held batters to a .215 batting average against and leads the league with 66 strikeouts, while he is second in the league with 65 2/3 innings pitched.

Hansel has been named Horizon League Pitcher of the Week once this season, with that announcement made by the league on April 16.

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 on March 16, 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.

IN EXTRA INNINGS
Milwaukee is 2-1 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 16-16-1 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.

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 be on the road for another set of games next week beginning with Northwestern on May 8 followed by a trip to Oakland for a conference series from May 10-12. The eight-game road trip will conclude at Northern Illinois on May 14 before the team heads home to finish the regular season against Youngstown State from May 16-18.

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.