SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN
First-year skipper Ben Greenspan has had his work cut out for him since taking over a squad that only won 10 games in 2023. In his first year, he already has the team with 14 wins in 44 games, as he looks to provide some stability to a program as the fourth head coach in as many seasons.

This year's squad can hang their hat on fundamental defense, as the Wildcats are 16th in Division I in fielding percentage. The team has scored just 244 runs on the season, and has a 7.19 ERA, both numbers are last in the Big Ten.

Milwaukee and Northwestern have met 33 times in their program history, with Milwaukee winning 12 games in the series including the last meeting on May 9, 2023, in Wisconsin. The Panthers are 8-18 in all-time meetings in Evanston, Illinois.

Players to Watch: Bennett Markinson (.329, 5 HR, 32 RBI); Preston Knott (.311, 6 HR, 19 RBI); Owen McElfatrick (.292, 8 HR, 28 RBI); Jackson Freeman (.245, 9 HR, 33 RBI).

Pitchers to Watch: Kyle Potthoff (3-4, 4.35 ERA, 30 K); Jack Dyke (1-1, 6.31 ERA, 2 Saves, 26 K); Garrett Shearer (2-9, 6.35 ERA, 2 Saves, 52 K); Matt McClure (3-5, 6.07 ERA, 37 K); Drew Dickson (1-0, 8.63 ERA, 22 K).

SCOUTING OAKLAND
Jordan Banfield's Golden Grizzlies has won 25 games in each of his last three seasons after winning just 18 in his first year with the program. Oakland sits two games ahead of Milwaukee in the standings for third place in the Horizon League, while they are only two games out of second place behind Northern Kentucky.

Oakland is third in the team in hitting with a .298 batting average and are third in the league with 413 runs scored through 49 games. While the Golden Grizzlies are in the middle of the pack in most offensive categories, their chase rate is high with 396 strikeouts just one behind league-leading Northern Kentucky; by comparison Milwaukee has struck out the least in the league with 353 strikeouts in 2024.

The Golden Grizzlies are also middle of the pack in pitching with a 7.99 ERA as a team with 315 strikeouts over 417 innings pitched. Oakland's pitching staff has yielded a .322 batting average against, with Milwaukee leading the league in the same category allowing just a .271 batting average against.

In an evenly matched all-time series, Milwaukee owns a 30-27 record against the Golden Grizzlies in 57 meetings. The Panthers have struggled in Michigan, with just 11 wins in 26 meetings on the road.

Players to Watch: Carter Hein (.353, 5 HR, 46, RBI); Brandon Heidal (.350, 8 HR, 32 RBI); Reggie Bussey (.332, 30 RBI, 29 SB); Trent Rice (.285, 20 RBI, 37 SB); Brandon Nigh (.284, 9 HR, 42 RBI).

Pitchers to Watch: Brandon Decker (5-6, 5.40 ERA, 76 K); Shane McAlinden (3-2, 7.09 ERA, 47 K); Hunter Pidek (3-7, 8.44 ERA, 43 K); Tanner Ware (3-0, 5.49 ERA, 24 K); Brody Krzysiak (2-1, 6.34 ERA, 30 K).

LAST SERIES AT THE PLATE
The series against Purdue Fort Wayne saw both teams evenly matched as Milwaukee took two of three from the Mastodons. Milwaukee hit .330 as a team, while Purdue Fort Wayne hit .320 with both teams scoring 26 runs apiece in the series.

Leading the way for MKE was Tyler Bickers with a .545 average, while Carson Hansen and Sean Tillmon both hit .500 on the weekend. Tillmon led the Panthers with seven RBIs, while Teige Lethert had two home runs in the series including a grand slam as he drove in five.

LAST SERIES ON THE MOUND
Luke Hansel got the start in the opener and pitched six innings while striking out just one batter as he took the loss after allowing five earned runs in game one of the series.

The Panther pitching staff bounced back in the Sunday doubleheader as Adrian Montilva struck out eighth over five innings as he allowed five runs before handing it over to the bullpen where Keagon Kaufmann picked up his second win of the week as he did now allow a run over 2 2/3 innings.

Owen Rice started game three and struck out three over his one inning of work before giving way to Gavin Theis, who earned the win as he went six innings of relief and struck out five batters to earn the win.

HANSEN NAMED BATTER OF THE WEEK x3
Milwaukee sophomore Carson Hansen was selected as the Horizon League Batter of the Week each of the last three weeks becoming just the second player in the history of the Horizon League (since 1983) to earn three straight awards.

Over the team's 13 games the past three weeks, Hansen has hit .462 with 24 hits in 52 at bats, while picking up 13 extra-base hits with 10 doubles and three home runs. He has scored 13 runs, while driving in 30. He has walked eight times and was hit by one pitch for a .516 on-base percentage and has also gone 3-for-3 in his stolen base attempts during the historic run.

DEFENSE STEPPING UP
After committing 29 defensive miscues in their first 22 game (3-19 record), the Panthers have only committed 15 errors in games since then helping lead to a 13-10 record.

BATTING AVERAGE BOOSTERS
In 24 Horizon League games this season, the Panthers have upped their season batting average as a squad. As a team, Milwaukee has a .313 batting average in league games compared to a .279 mark overall this season.

Leading the way in bumping that mark is Carson Hansen who is hitting .406 in league games (.326 overall), while Tyler Bickers (.404 in HL Games/.327 Overall), Justin Hausser (.394/.349), Zach Lane (.309/.289), Gabe Roessler (.307/.256), and Q Phillips (.291/.281) 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 only allowed three earned runs since March 30 against Purdue Fort Wayne. Since that outing, Kelliher has lowered his season ERA from 15.43 to 8.10.

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. He later went on to add saves against Northern Illinois on May 1 and Purdue Fort Wayne on May 5.

CARSON HANSEN: DOUBLES MACHINE
With two more doubles this past week, Carson Hansen now has a Horizon League-leading 22 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. While Justin Hausser also tied the program mark as well with three doubles against Parkside on April 30.

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 had his on-base streak stopped at 28 games on May 5 at Purdue Fort Wayne after having reached base safely in 28 consecutive games. Since 2006, Roessler's streak is the 28th occurrence of a Panther reaching base in at least 20 consecutive games, having joined 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 3.89 ERA, with teammate Adrian Montilva third in the league at 5.13. Hansel also has held batters to a .233 batting average against and is second the league with 67 strikeouts, while he is second in the league with 71 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 three games 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 and the second game of the May 5 doubleheader against Purdue Fort Wayne , the Panthers also drew nine walks this season.

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's road trip comes to a close on May 14, when the team visits Northern Illinois in DeKalb before wrapping up the regular season with a home series against Youngstown State from May 16-18 at Franklin Field.

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.