LEADING OFF
» After losing both Monday and Tuesday's non-conference games due to weather, the Panthers are back home to take on the Oakland Golden Grizzlies for a three-game Horizon League series against the team directly ahead of them in the league standings.
» Milwaukee comes off a 2-1 weekend series against Purdue Fort Wayne as Milwaukee opened the home slate with an impressive showing in back-to-back wins against the Mastodons.
» Luke Hansel and Adrian Montilva combined to throw 13 innings with 18 strikeouts as the duo of starters earned their first wins of the season.
» Oakland took 2-of-3 from Wright State this past weekend, before falling to non-conference Toledo on Monday by a 3-2 score.
» The Golden Grizzlies are in the midst of an 18-17 non-conference contest with Bowling Green, that was halted following the sixth inning due to weather and field conditions on Tuesday afternoon. Results and statistics from the game will not take effect it is concluded on May 1.

SCOUTING OAKLAND
Oakland reached the final round of the 2023 Horizon League Championship before falling to eventual winner Wright State after an 18-12 showing in league games to clinch last season's two seed. The Golden Grizzlies are currently 4-5 through the first three weeks of the season and are a game out of second behind Wright State (5-4), while being tied with Purdue Fort Wayne (4-5), and a game ahead of Milwaukee (3-6).

The Golden Grizzlies are arguably the most balanced team this season, as they are second in the league in both team batting average (.306), and team earned run average (7.58), while they're also second in the Horizon in team fielding percentage at .967. The offense has scored 300 runs, two shy of league-leading Northern Kentucky's mark, with Lucas Day leading the offense with 30 RBIs as he is second on the team with a .391 average, Brandon Nigh has driven in 26 runs, while Carter Hain has broken into the starting lineup over his last 10 appearances and is hitting .413 with 21 driven in.

All-Conference honoree Ian Cleary is still a threat in the Oakland lineup with his .302 average while Reggie Bussey is backing up his All-Freshman team recognition with a .306 average this season with five doubles and a pair of triples. The Golden Grizzlies have 82 steals this year in 99 attempts, led by Trent Rice, who is 24-for-27, and Bussey who has swiped 18 bags in 19 attempts in 2024.

Leading the pitching staff for the Golden Grizzlies has been Brandon Decker, who was last season's Horizon League Reliever of the Year but has transitioned into a starting role in 2024. Decker has emerged has the team's Sunday starter and has posted a 7.17 ERA over 10 outings this year with a team-high 34 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings. Hunter Pidek is the team's Friday starter and has thrown 35 1/3 innings with 24 strikeouts but has a 1-4 record and a 7.90 ERA. Sean Fekete is the Saturday starter for Oakland and has made eight starts with an 8.88 ERA over 25 1/3 innings with 15 strikeouts against 12 walks.

Ben Paugh has been the top reliever for the Golden Grizzlies with a 4.35 ERA in 10 1/3 innings, while Tanner Ware has a 4.56 ERA with 18 strikeouts over 25 2/3 innings. Brody Krzysiak has 19 strikeouts over 22 innings and has a 1-1 record with a 5.73 ERA.

HISTORY VERSUS…
In 54 all-time meetings, the Panthers currently own a 30-24 record against Oakland dating back to their inaugural meeting on April 5, 2014, a date that included identical 4-3 wins in a doubleheader for the Panthers over the Golden Grizzlies. Over the last 15 meetings, however, Oakland has gone 10-5, which includes last season's 4-2 record against the Panthers.

In games hosted by the Panthers, Milwaukee is 17-9 all-time in home games against Oakland including a 21-3 victory on May 1, 2021, which was Milwaukee's most recent occurrence of scoring 20+ runs in a single game.

Last season the Panthers were 2-4 against the Golden Grizzlies in head-to-head matchups, with a win in each of the team's two three-game series. The Panthers' lone win in Michigan saw Mark Connelly record the first cycle in program history, while Milwaukee walked-off against their foes from Oakland in a 6-5 10-inning victory as Jake Novak walked it off to cap off his three-hit and five-RBI day.

LAST SERIES AT THE PLATE
Offensively, Milwaukee had three players collect at least four hits during its series against Purdue Fort Wayne last weekend. Justin Hausser and Tyler Bickers each had seven hits apiece and ended the weekend hitting .538 on the weekend.

Bickers drove in a team-high six runs, while Carson Hansen also had four hits and scored a team-high six runs in the series against the Mastodons.

LAST SERIES ON THE MOUND
Starters Adrian Montilva and Luke Hansel got their first wins of the season with Hansel pitching seven innings without allowing a run and striking out eight. Montilva followed Hansel's performance with a career-high 10 strikeouts as he threw six innings and allowed one run.

Logan Snow picked up his first save with the Panthers as he tossed three scoreless innings to follow Montilva's outing. James Severson made two appearances on the weekend and totaled 4 1/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts.

10-STRIKEOUT DAY
On March 30, Milwaukee starter Adrian 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.

HANSEN'S DOUBLES
Towards the top of the Horizon League with 10 doubles this season, Carson Hansen is currently second in the league with his team-leading 10 two-base hits. Wright State's Sammy Sass leads the league with 11 on the season.

Last season the team was led by both Mark Connelly and Marcus Cline with 14 doubles apiece, while the last time a Panther reached 20 doubles in a season came back in 2019, when Trevor Schwecke had 20. The program record for doubles in a season is 23 set back in 2006 by Mike Goetz.

TOPS IN PITCHING
Milwaukee's pitching staff continues to be the Horizon League leaders with a team ERA of 6.90 with Northern Kentucky second in the conference with a 7.58 team ERA. Luke Hansel is top among pitchers that qualify for the individual lead in ERA with a 2.74 on the season followed by Adrian Montilva in third at 4.15, and Logan Snow is fifth at 4.97.

The trio for the Panthers are in the top-four in the league in opponents' batting average; Hansel (2nd, .219), Montilva (3rd, .225), Snow (4th, .235). Hansel is also second in the league in innings pitched at 42 2/3, while he is also second among the conference's strikeout leaders with 42 on the year including seven strikeouts looking. Montilva is tied for third in the league with 34 strikeouts, while he has caught eight batters looking at strike three.

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.

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.

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.

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 5:05 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
After the Panthers finish the three-game set against the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland, Milwaukee will host non-conference Valparaiso on Tuesday, April 9 before a non-conference game on the road at Michigan on April 10. Following the date in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Panthers will continue onward to Youngstown State for a three-game series in Niles, Ohio with the opening game set for 4 p.m. (CT) on Friday, April 12.

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.