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

SOMERS, Wis. (Apr. 20, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside baseball team will invade the Capital of Illinois for an extended weekend, warming up with a non-league doubleheader against Robert Morris University-Springfield on Friday night before facing Great Lakes Valley Conference rival University of Illinois Springfield in a four-game series.
 
The Rangers and Eagles square off in a twinbill on Friday at 3 p.m. while Parkside and Illinois Springfield are slated for noon doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday at the USI Baseball Field. Live stats will be provided for all four games of the UIS series. There will be no live stats for the RMU-Springfield doubleheader.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (6-25, 2-14 GLVC) is back on the road after playing its first games of the season at Oberbruner Field last weekend against 19th-ranked University of Indianapolis. The visiting Greyhounds swept the opening day of the series 11-4 and 11-1 before the Rangers stunned the Hounds with a 3-0 shutout behind a complete game effort from southpaw Tyler Jandron. UIndy seized the series final 9-6, utilizing a late game surge to claim the win.
 
UW-Parkside outhit the Hounds in three of the four games over the weekend but stranded 20 runners on base in the two losses when outgunning UIndy.
 
Kyohei Makita is having a banner campaign for the Rangers in his first season with the team, pacing UW-Parkside at the plate with a .394 batting average with right doubles and 21 runs. Zach Thompson is hitting at a .310 clip with 14 RBIs and a team-best 12 stolen bases while Jake Kolasinski has driven in 13 runs for the Green and White in 2016.
 
On the hill, Jandron is the workhorse with 43 innings under his belt with 55 strikeouts and a 2.72 earned run average. Mario Samuel has appeared on the mound in 41 innings with 29 strikeouts while Josh Serio has logged 36 innings with 47 punchouts.
 
About the Eagles: United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) member Robert Morris-Springfield (3-22) heads into Friday's series on a seven-game slide, most recently falling 6-2 to Iowa Wesleyan College in a rain shortened contest on Tuesday.
 
Two of RMU-Springfield's three victories have come at the expense of Morthland College, sweeping the Patriots 5-4 and 10-3 on April 9. The Eagles' only other triumph of the season with a 9-8 against Principia College in the squad's home opener on March 22.
 
Joey Collura is RMU-Springfield's top hitter, owning a .311 average at the plate while Nick Grupa owns a .300 average. On the mound, Tyler Williams has pitched a team-high 37 2/3 innings with 14 strikeouts and owns a 6.93 earned run average.
 
About the Prairie Stars: Illinois Springfield (20-16, 8-8 GLVC) heads into the weekend having won five of its last seven games. The Prairie Stars earned a weekend split with Bellarmine University sandwiched around non-conference victories at the expense of RMU-Springfield (13-1 and 17-0) on April 13 and Truman State University (4-1) on April 19.
 
Against Bellarmine, UIS tallied an 8-4 victory in the opener on Saturday before settling with a doubleheader split with a 5-1 loss in game two. On Sunday, the Prairie Stars rallied for the 4-3 win in game one before dropping the series finale 10-4.
 
Seven UIS players are hitting above .300 with Gabriel Acevedo leading the way with a .379 average with 13 doubles and 26 RBIs. Trey Hannam is hitting .353 at the dish with 25 RBIs while scoring 30 runs while Jake Redlinger and Austin Muenich sport .348 and .344 averages at the plate.
 
Chance Simpson has a team-best 2.79 earned run average, owning a 4-0 record on the mound with 31 strikeouts in 42 innings of action. Kyle Strepek has a 3.48 ERA, making 12 relief appearances and netting 21 strikeouts while Jose Marin has 34 strikeouts in 42 innings of work.
 
GLVC Awards: Tyler Jandron was named the GLVC Pitcher of the Week on April 18, becoming the first Ranger to claim the award since fellow southpaw Mario Samuel captured the accolade on April 1, 2014. Jandron netted the honor after striking out five and allowing just two hits in a complete game shutout of then No. 19 University of Indianapolis. It was the Negaunee, Michigan natives second shutout of his career, also doing so on March 21, 2015 against Rockhurst University.
 
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 before facing No. 19 University of Indianapolis last weekend at Oberbruner Field.
 
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 has utilized three different venues in Kenosha over the past three seasons. Of the 32 home games played, 21 were contest on-campus at Oberbruner Field. Nine more have been played down the road at the artificial turf of Augie Schmidt Field while a pair of contests was played 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 13 in 2016 and heads to Illinois riding a five-game hitting streak. Kolasinski and Troy Bittenbender have collected eight multi-hit performances this season while Zach Thompson has done so on seven 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.