DAYTON – The University of Dayton baseball team will play at home for the first time in 2022 in a condensed three-game series against Milwaukee. The home opener will take place on Friday at 2 p.m. at Woerner Field at AES Ohio Stadium. The teams will take Saturday off before finishing the series with a doubleheader on Sunday starting at noon.
 
All three contests will include live stats, and a radio broadcast will be available for Sunday's doubleheader and can be found on the schedule page on Daytonflyers.com
 
SCOUTING THE FLYERS
The Flyers played one of their two scheduled midweek games this week, falling at Wright State on Tuesday 14-0. Dayton's original home opener against Northern Kentucky was canceled due to inclement weather, so this weekend's series against the Panthers will feature UD's first home game of 2022.
Against the Raiders, junior Anthony Hattrup tied a career high, striking out five Wright State hitters across 4.2 innings. Hattrup only allowed one unearned run and did not allow a hit until the fourth inning.
 
Dayton only trailed 1-0 until a 10-run Wright State sixth inning put the Flyers down by 11. Offensively, graduate student Henry Strmecki picked up a pair of base hits and freshmen Lucas Adam and David Pedanou each picked up their first career collegiate hits late. Junior Thomas Braybrooks also made his season debut, pitching 1.2 scoreless innings to finish the game for UD.
 
On the season, junior Keagan Calero leads the Flyers with a .378 batting average and a .500 on-base percentage, while also stealing a team-high five bases. Senior Jay Curtis has 5 doubles and a .325 batting average, while Strmecki leads Dayton with 9 RBIs.
 
Hattrup has been solid on the mound for the Flyers, with his 0.79 ERA the lowest on the staff. Graduate student Andrew Zapka has also been good out of the bullpen, allowing just two earned runs in his 7.1 innings this season. Zapka's WHIP is 0.95 and he has both a win and a save in 2022. Junior Ryan Steinhauer has been the team's most consistent starter with a 2.51 ERA and a 1-0 record through three starts. His 17 strikeouts lead the Flyers through 11 games.
 
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
Milwaukee enters the series with a 4-6 record, with the Panthers sweeping Alabama A&M on Opening Weekend and facing ranked Arizona as well this season. Last week, the Panthers took one of three from BYU, splitting a doubleheader on Thursday before dropping Friday's afternoon series finale.
The Horizon League Preseason Poll saw the Panthers picked to finish third in the conference, placing Milwaukee behind UIC and Wright State, with the Raiders favored to win the conference with six first place votes.
 
Scott Doffek has been the head coach of Milwaukee since 2007 and led the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament in 2010. He is the winningest coach in Milwaukee's history and led the team to a second-straight Horizon League Championship Game in 2021.
 
Jake Novak leads the Panthers offensively, hitting .360 in eight games this season with two home runs and five RBIs. Conner Goodman has started every game this season and leads the team with nine RBIs to go with his .318 average. On the basepaths, Luke Seidel is tied for 22nd in the nation with 8 stolen bases in 2022, while Aaron Chapman enters with a 10-game hitting streak.
 
Nick Gilhaus put together a solid outing in his first start of the year, going six scoreless innings in the win against BYU and has a 1.69 ERA in 10.2 innings. A.J. Blubaugh and Riley Frey lead the team with 16 strikeouts, while Blubaugh and Eliot Turnquist each have one save on the season.
 
MATCHUP HISTORY
This will be just the second-ever meeting between these two schools. Milwaukee leads the series 1-0, beating the Flyers 6-0 in Milwaukee back on March 7, 2010. Joe Gayda led off for the Flyers, picking up two hits in a game that was started by Burny Mitchem.