FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
MILWAUKEE – The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee baseball team will open the upcoming season on the road with trips heading West and South to play New Mexico State University and the University of Miami, head coach Scott Doffek announced today when he released the 2013 schedule.
“Our goal every year is to compete for and win a conference championship,” Doffek said. “This league has really improved over the years and I feel it is essential for us to stack adversity in preparation for league play. The program will have an opportunity to go out and compete against some of the best talent the country has to offer in some tough environments – we will play 15 games versus teams that were in the NCAA Tournament last season.”
The Panthers went 27-27 a year ago and had five players earn postseason honors from the Horizon League, including a pair of returning first-team honorees in pitcher Cale Tassi and outfielder Luke Meeteer. In addition, they enjoyed a program first when three players were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.
UWM begins the campaign with a four-game set against the NMSU Aggies in Las Cruces, N.M. The season opener is set for Friday, Feb. 15, while the home opener is scheduled for March 26 against Cardinal Stritch. The February 15 start date is the third-earliest in program history (Feb. 10 in 2006; Feb. 13 in 1999).
Also on the schedule in February is a trip to Coral Gables, Fla., to take on the Hurricanes. The three game series will be played Feb. 22-24.
“There is just no substitute for quality competition,” Doffek said. “We have a lot of work to do moving forward, but I know our players and staff our excited for the challenge.”
Milwaukee’s schedule features matchups with five 2012 NCAA Tournament teams in New Mexico State (35-24 in 2012), Miami (36-23), Austin Peay (40-24), Creighton (30-28) and Valparaiso (35-25). The Panthers will also have contests against eight teams that won 30 or more games last season, two of which reached or eclipsed the 40-win total.
Once March hits, Milwaukee heads to Evansville (32-27 last season) for a four-game series and then to the Riverview Inn Classic at Austin Peay (March 8-10) where it plays three different teams in three days.
Horizon League play begins at Wright State (March 15-17) and continues with one more road trip at UIC (March 22-24) before opening the home portion of the schedule with a single game against Cardinal Stritch March 26.
In addition to a full slate of Horizon League contests, there will also be single games at home against Wisconsin Lutheran (April 16) and Edgewood (April 17). Single-game road contests include Big Ten foes Northwestern (April 24), Iowa (April 30) and Minnesota (May 8).
In addition to a three-game road series at Saint Louis, which went 41-18 a year ago, there is also home-and-home series with Chicago State and Northern Illinois.
