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

SOMERS, Wis. (Apr. 28, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside baseball team gets to bask in the comforts of home this weekend, hosting Bellarmine University in a four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division series after the slate was relocated from Louisville, Kentucky due to inclement weather. With the site swap, the Rangers will now play their final 10 regular season games inside the state of Wisconsin, including nine at the on-campus Oberbruner Field.
 
The Rangers and Knights lift the lid on the series on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. before repeating the format on Sunday. Live stats for all four games will be available at parksiderangers.com.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (8-28, 3-17 GLVC) tallied two wins in five tries last weekend during its extended stay in the capital city of Illinois. The Rangers opened the trip last Friday with an emphatic 23-9 victory over Robert Morris University-Springfield with 10 different Ranger student-athletes collecting hits.
 
UW-Parkside was swept the following day by the University of Illinois Springfield in a GLVc twinbill, falling 14-11 in a barnburner to open the series before faltering 6-2 in game two. Tyler Jandron tossed his second complete game shutout of the season on Sunday, powering UW-Parkside to the 7-0 win before the Rangers fell 7-3 to cap off the weekend.
 
Kyohei Makita continues to pace the Green and White in batting average (.366), slugging percentage (.480), runs (25), and doubles (eight) while Zach Thompson owns a .319 average at the dish with a team-high 19 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Kyle Schulz is having a breakout freshman season, owning a .317 average at the plate while Troy Bittenbender boasts a .303 mark with nine extra base hits, nine RBIs, and nine stolen bases.
 
Jandron is the workhorse on the pitching staff, leading the team in earned run average (2.34), appearances (13), complete games (three), innings pitched (50) and strikeouts (64) while fellow lefty Mario Samuel has pitched 47 innings with 33 strikeouts while going the distance twice.
 
About the Knights: Bellarmine (20-22, 11-9 GLVC) heads to Wisconsin having dropped five of its last six games and is in the midst of an 18-game road swing to close the regular season.
 
The Knights stunned then No. 17 University of Indianapolis 4-1 in Saturday's nightcap before ending up on the wrong side of 3-1 and 15-14 scores on Sunday against the host Greyhounds.
 
Bellarmine hasn't enjoyed the comforts of home since early April when the Kentucky-based club took three of four against Saint Joseph's College, including 5-0 and 6-5 victories to close the series on April 10.
 
Cole Metcalfe is the Knights' top hitter, sporting a .365 average at the plate with 17 extra base hits and 34 RBis. Jes Staples owns a .335 average with 24 RBIs and a team-high 11 stolen bases while Griffin Neuer is hitting at a .322 clip, scoring a team-high 39 runs while driving in a team-best 35 runs.
 
Three BU pitchers have logged over 50 innings on the mound with Hunter Spencer leading the way with a team-best 1.68 earned run average with 36 strikeouts and a 5-1 record. Austin Warner has nine starts for BU, pitching 52 2/3 innings with 47 punchouts while Michael Messier leads the team in complete games (five), innings pitched (56 1/3) and strikeouts (64).
 
Offensive Fireworks: UW-Parkside's 23-9 throttling of Robert Morris University-Springfield on April 22 was the largest offensive output for the Rangers in over a decade. It was Parkside's first contest scoring more than 20 runs since doing so on April 2, 2010 and was the most runs scored since the 2005 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship winning Rangers piled on 25 runs at the expense of Cardinal Stritch University on April 19, 2005.
 
One-hitter Rewind: Tyler Jandron's performance on Sunday was the Rangers' first one-hitter since fellow southpaw Mario Samuel accomplished the feat back on March 31, 2014. In that game, Samuel struck out three to guide UW-Parkside to a 2-0 win over host University of Indianapolis at Greyhound Park.
 
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 native's 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 14 in 2016 while Troy Bittenbender has done so on nine occasions.
 
GLVC Rankings: UW-Parkside has a trio players ranking in the top 15 statistically in the GLVC. Tyler Jandron is tied for the league lead in strikeouts with 64 while sitting tied for seventh in earned run average (2.34). Offensively, Kyohei Makita is tied for 12th in batting average (.366) while on the basepaths Zach Thompson is fourth in stolen bases with 15 thefts in 2016.
 
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.