FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

SOMERS, Wis. (Apr. 15, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside baseball squad returns home and will host its first games of the season at Oberbruner Field, facing 19th-ranked University of Indianapolis in a four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series.
 
The Rangers and Greyhounds open the series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon before closing the slate on Sunday with another twinbill getting underway at 12 p.m.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (5-22, 1-11 GLVC) returns home to Wisconsin after dropping three of four against the University of Southern Indiana last weekend in Evansville.
 
The Screaming Eagles rallied to a 2-1 victory in the opener last Saturday, pushing across the winning score in the top of the eighth inning. The team's fortunes were reversed in game two with UW-Parkside scoring early and often in a 5-1 win. The Rangers plated three runs in the opening frame while Mario Samuel went the distance on the mound for the squad's first win of GLVC play.
 
On Sunday, Southern Indiana stormed out to a 13-0 win in game one before a lead slipped away in the final inning for the Rangers, falling 10-8 to cap off the series. A five run eighth inning gave UW-Parkside an 8-7 edge heading into the final frame but the hosts pushed across three in the top of the ninth to emerge with the win.
 
Kyohei Makita highlights the Ranger offensive efforts, owning a team-best .385 batting average with 10 RBIs while scoring a team-best 19 runs. Zach Thompson is hitting at a .307 clip while collecting a team-best 11 stolen bases while Jake Kolasinski has a team-best six doubles and 13 RBIs.
 
Tyler Jandron and Josh Serio lead the team in innings pitched, both logging 36 innings on the mound. Jandron has a team-high 11 appearances with 50 strikeouts and a team-leading 3.25 earned run average. Serio has 47 punchouts to his name while Samuel has 26 in 35 1/3 innings of action.
 
About the Greyhounds: 19th-ranked Indianapolis (22-9, 8-4 GLVC) heads to Wisconsin on a modest two-game win streak. UIndy split its series on the road last weekend against McKendree University. The Greyhounds earned a 7-5 victory in the opener before stumbling 4-3 in game two. The Bearcats stole game one on Sunday 8-3 before the Hounds leveled the series with a 13-7 win in the nightcap.
 
UIndy was back on the diamond on Wednesday afternoon, securing a 10-5 win over Maryville University in a non-conference showdown.
 
Kyle Orloff and Anthony Asalon both sport a .417 batting average through the first 31 games of the season. Orloff has a team-best 43 RBIs while Asalon has seven home runs while scoring 37 runs, both team highs. Colin Hawk sports a .377 average with 15 doubles while Carter Pranger is hitting at a .354 clip.
 
Dylan Stutsman owns a team-best 1.54 earned run average on the hill with nine saves and 28 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings of work. Jake Shaw has seen the most action amongst the starters, recording 53 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings with three complete games.
 
Food Cart: UW-Parkside and UIndy fans should bring their appetite over the weekend with De La Rosa Mexican restaurant providing a food cart for the doubleheaders on both days.
 
19s: When it comes to playing nationally-ranked teams, 19 appears to be the number for UW-Parkside in 2016. The Rangers faced then No. 19 Missouri Southern State University on Mar. 21 and Mar. 23 and will face the current No. 19 this weekend with Indianapolis coming to town.
 
On Wisconsin: UW-Parkside's 9-0 win over in-state foe Northland College on April 1 continued the program's dominance against the rest of the Badger State. Since 2011, the Rangers are 5-1 against in-state opponents with the lone setback coming in 2014 at the hands of Division I University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During the six year stretch, the Green and White have collected victories over Northland, Cardinal Stritch University, Carroll University, and Edgewood College.
 
Tour de Kenosha: UW-Parkside is no stranger to the artificial turf of Augie Schmidt Field having logged nine games at the home of the Carthage College Red Men over the past three seasons. In fact, of the 28 home games played over the last three seasons, only 17 were contested on campus at Oberbruner Field with nine at Carthage (including six last season) along with a pair of contests at Simmons Field, home of the Northwoods League's Kenosha Kingfish.
 
Streaks: Jake Kolasinski opened the 2016 season with an eight-game hitting streak, an accomplishment that has since surpassed by Kyohei Makita who tallied a nine-game streak, including reaching base safely in 10 straight games. Makita additionally leads the team in multiple hit games with 10 in 2016 while Kolasinski has collected eight multi-hit performances this season while Troy Bittenbender and Zach Thompson have done so on six occasions.
 
GLVC Reshuffle: 2016 will have a slightly different look to GLVC play with interdivisional games eliminated from the league calendar. Teams will now play seven four-game sets against the rest of their division with the top four teams from each division meeting for the GLVC Tournament from May 12th to 15th in Westview, Indiana. 
 
Out of the (North)Woods: Last summer four Rangers appeared in the Northwoods League, one of the top collegiate summer leagues in the nation. Josh Serio was a league All-Star playing for the eventual champion Kenosha Kingfish while fellow pitcher Mario Samuel also spent time with the local squad. Tyler Jandron spent some time with the Wausau-based Wisconsin Woodchucks with Jake Kolasinski opening the season with the Lakeshore Chinooks based out of Mequon, Wisconsin. For 2016, Serio resigned with the defending champion Kingfish.
 
Coos Bay Connection: Head Coach Daniel Esposito spent four seasons as the head coach at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay and his stint with the Lakers continues to pay dividends with three student-athletes and one assistant coach having spent time with the SWOCC baseball program. Montana natives Riley Phillips and Cody Rolshoven along with Tokyo native Kyohei Makita all spent time with SWOCC prior to donning the Green and White along with assistant coach Gonzalo Gonzalez Jr. who was a player under Esposito at both SWOCC and Pittsburg State University in Kansas.