Tuesday vs. Valparaiso | Country Night | Koozie Giveaway (First 100 Fans)

SCOUTING VALPARAISO
With a record of 10-19 on the season, Valparaiso makes their way to Wisconsin for the first time since 2022, when the Panthers swept a doubleheader from the Beacons 3-2, and 8-3. The former conference foes have met 73 times with Milwaukee winning 40 of those matchups, as the Panthers own a 16-12 record in home games against Valparaiso.

Head coach Brian Schmack has 198 career wins during his 11 seasons at the helm of the Beacons and is third all-time in wins at Valparaiso. His current team has struggled offensively as the Beacons are last in the Missouri Valley Conference in batting average (.246) and runs scored (144), both numbers are in the bottom 30 teams in all of NCAA Division I. Valpo has the eighth-best team ERA of 10 MVC programs with a 6.87 mark over 234 1/3 innings, Beacon pitchers have only allowed 4.15 walks per game, which is the third-best mark in the conference and within the top-75 of Division I.

Burlington, Wisconsin-native Trent Turzenski is expected to get the ball for the Beacons as he makes his first start of the season after seven relief outings. The 6-6 right-hander has a 7.24 ERA in 13 2/3 innings with 17 strikeouts against eight walks, accumulating a 1-1 record with one save on the year. Son of head coach Brian Schmack, Kyle has led the offense for most of the season with 33 hits and has a team-best .289 average with 10 home runs and 23 RBIs, while he is 7-7 in stolen base attempts.

Valparaiso does not have any mutual opponents as Milwaukee at this juncture of the season until it plays UIC later this month in Chicago. The Beacons will also visit Northwestern for their final non-conference game of the regular season on May 14, shortly after the Panthers visit Northwestern on May 8.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN
The first of three Big Ten opponents this season for Milwaukee, the Panthers visit Michigan for their first meeting since their only meeting in 2009. The Panthers upset then-ranked No. 25 Michigan on February 27, when the Panthers upset the Wolverines by a 19-11 score. Current Panther head coach Shaun Wegner was the starting catcher for the Panthers on that day and had a double in two at bats and scored a run.

The Wolverines are 14-18 on the season, the second for skipper Tracy Smith, who has a 42-46 record heading into Tuesday's game and will host Western Michigan before welcoming in Milwaukee on Wednesday. In 27 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Smith has 847 wins and a .563 winning percentage, which included stops at Arizona State, Indiana, and Miami (Ohio). Michigan has scored 214 runs, seventh best in the Big Ten, while hitting just .257 on the year. The patient offense has drawn 163 walks in 32 games, which is 63rd most in Division I.

Individually, Stephen Hrustich leads the Wolverines with 28 walks, which is 48th in the nation, while he leads the team with nine home runs to go along with 23 RBIs. Mitch Voit has been a key cog in the offensive lineup for Michigan with 15 doubles to lead the Big Ten Conference and leads the team with a .318 average to go along with five home runs and 26 RBIs. Voit is a two-way star for Michigan, as he third among pitchers that qualify for the team ERA lead as he has posted a 5.86 with a team-high 50 2/3 innings and leads the team with 34 strikeouts.

Michigan has played one common opponent with Milwaukee, having knocked off Oakland by a 13-5 score on March 6. The Wolverines just took two of three from Iowa this past weekend in Iowa City, where the Panthers will head on April 23. Michigan will also play Long Beach State to end the month, who Milwaukee played and lost all three games to early in March.

SCOUTING YOUNGSTOWN STATE
As the first round of Horizon League play ends this weekend, Milwaukee will get the chance to face off against Youngstown State, who trail the Panthers by a game in the league standings, while the Penguins are 4-26 on the year overall and will host Toledo on Tuesday before welcoming the Panthers to Eastwood Field to open up the series on Friday evening.

Dan Bertolini is currently in his eighth season as head coach of the Penguins and has 129 wins over that span, and finished fourth in the Horizon League standings a season ago before Milwaukee ended their season in the opening round of the Horizon League Championship behind the efforts of Riley Frey. The Panthers have more wins against the Penguins than any other team in their Division I history dating back to 1991 with 70 victories in 116 all-time meetings. Last season the Panthers had just two wins in six games and have not won a game in Northeast Ohio since April 15, 2022.

A year ago, Trey Law earned a spot on the All-League Second Team and has backed that up with yet another impressive showing through the team's first 30 games as he is one of just three players to start in all 30 for the Penguins. Law leads YSU with 40 hits and a .342 batting average and leads the team with 23 runs scored at the top of the team's lineup. Alejandro Covas is also hitting .330 on the year as the duo are the only two regulars to hit above the team's batting average of .245 this season. Freshman phenom Derrick Tarpley, Jr. has been out of game action since March 13, Tarpley was drafted out of high school by the Oakland Athletics organization but chose to fulfill his commitment to Youngstown State.

Jacob Gehring, Brandon Mikos, and Sloan Ulrich are expected to be the trio of arms to face the Panthers over the weekend, but Youngstown State's pitching staff has struggled with a league-worst 11.97 team ERA in 30 games. Only Alcorn State has a worst team ERA this season of the 295 teams that sponsor Division I baseball. Gehring has a 2-4 record with an 8.60 ERA over 37 2/3 innings with Mikos posting a 9.45 ERA with an 0-1 mark over three starts, Ulrich has an 8.90 ERA and has seven starts and thrown 30 1/3 innings. Chris Domke is the Penguins' closer and has three saves on the year over a dozen outings with a 9.58 ERA over 10 1/3 innings.

LAST SERIES AT THE PLATE
Last weekend against Oakland, Milwaukee was led by Justin Hausser with six hits in 13 at bats for a .462 average including three doubles for a team-best nine total bases as he also scored four runs. Carson Hansen led the team with four RBIs, while Lane also had a pair of RBIs on the weekend.

The Panthers had two triples on the week as Gabe Roessler and Sean Tillmon led off innings and scored runs. Roessler and Camden Kuhnke each had stolen bases on the week.

LAST SERIES ON THE MOUND
Milwaukee's lefty starters performed well as Adrian Montilva had eight strikeouts against the Golden Grizzlies on Saturday, before Owen Rice threw three hitless innings to open the final games of the series.

The bullpen had four arms that had scoreless outings, including two scoreless outings from both Johnny Kelliher (1 1/3 IP) and Keagon Kaufmann (2 IP). James Severson (1 2/3 IP) and Camden Kuhnke (1 IP) also had scoreless outings over the weekend.

TOPS IN PITCHING
Milwaukee's pitching staff continues to be the Horizon League leaders with a team ERA of 6.67 with Oakland second in the conference with a 7.11 team ERA. Luke Hansel is top among pitchers that qualify for the individual lead in ERA with a 3.00 on the season followed by Adrian Montilva in third at 3.82, and Logan Snow is sixth at 5.79.

The trio for the Panthers is in the top-four in the league in opponents' batting average; Hansel (1st, .211), Montilva (2nd, .213), Snow (4th, .241). Hansel is also second in the league in innings pitched at 48, while he is also tied for the conference lead with 43. Montilva is tied for third in the league with 42 strikeouts, while he has caught 11 batters looking at strike three.

LAST THREE FOR MONTY
Adrian Montilva has 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.

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.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Milwaukee's dynamic left-handed duo of Carson Hansen and Justin Hausser are in a tie for second in the Horizon League with 11 doubles each heading into play this week. The pair trail Wright State's Sammy Sass, who has 13 two-base hits 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.

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.

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 Milwaukee visits Youngstown State at the end of this week, the Panthers return home for five games next week. Milwaukee will host UIC on Tuesday at Franklin Field, before taking on MSOE on Wednesday at American Family Field. The team heads right back to Franklin Field for a weekend set with Wright State on Friday, April 19 through Sunday, April 21.

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.