Unusual April Weather Put UWM Baseball Home Games On Hold

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The UW-Milwaukee men’s baseball team is not only the only Division 1 Baseball team in the state of Wisconsin but also the only team in Division 1 Baseball to not play a home game yet.

With the biggestsnowstorm in April hitting Milwaukee, the Panthers have had seven scheduled home games that have been either postponed, moved to another location or cancelled due to the weather. The team has already played 32 games away from home this season and is looking forward to playing the majority of the remaining games at home. This breaks aschool record for consecutive road games which was at 31.

“I’ve honestly never seen it this ugly,” Assistant AD Chris Zills said. The team was supposed to have its first game on April 4th against MSOE but the recent weather has made the field deemed unplayable.

“That’s spring Baseball in Wisconsin for you,” Zills said.  “You have to be prepared for anything,”.

This is not an ideal situation for any team to deal with but it also affects the team they are playing against because the two teams have to come to some agreement on either rescheduling the series, cancelling it all together or swapping series.

The team recently had scheduled home series against the Univerisity of Illinois-Chicago that was pushed to Chicago because of the snowstorm. The next day the team got word that the series would be canceled all toghether due to unplayable conditions on UIC’s field as well.

The Panthers play their home games at Henry Aaron Field which is located in Glendale but they are moving to a brand new facility in Franklin next season. The “Hank” as its known to the locals have been the home of Panther Baseball since 1994 but has had its troubles in that span.

Despite the frustration, the team has played great baseball on the road as of late winning four of their last five games including a three game sweep in their last series against Youngstown St.  That series was originally scheduled to be played in Milwaukee but was pushed to Youngstown, Ohio due to the weather.

“It’s honestly laughable at this point,” Redshirt Junior Elijah Goodman said. “It would be nice to play a home game at some point but as long as were winning games, I really don’t care where we are playing,”. Goodman said.

The team is looking forward to the month of May when they are expected to play 13 straight home games to close the year. Playing at home gives the team an edge confidence to be in front of their home crowd.

“Our guys have been a resilient group,” Head Coach Scott Doffek said. “It hasn’t been an ideal situation with this many road games but the guys haven’t felt sorry for themselves. Doffek said.

There is also a home game that the team plays every year at Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. That game is scheduled for May 12 against Wright State.

The team is currently (15-18) and is still right in contention for a conference championship. “The overall morale of the team is still really high” Goodman said. “We have spent a lot of time together on the road and that has brought us closer as a group, “We’ve had a lot of Chipotle and Fortnite on the bus,” he added.

It has not been a conventional season by any means for the Panthers as they have had not only had a mix of new players, injuries and key losses from last year. It doesn’t help that the group has endured the biggest snowstorm the area has seen this late in the year.

The well traveled Panthers had not had any problems getting games in early in the season as they started off the year playing in states like Florida and California. Since April 3rd, the team has had seven games that have been postponed or cancelled.

Though this team has not been able to yet play a home game this season, the goals for this team still remain. A conference title and a chance to compete to go to the College World Series.

“The guys know what they are capable of,” Coach Doffek said.

This could be a blessing in disguise for this team that has many new players and now has spent 32 straight games together on the road.

The team will play their home games for the final year at Henry Aaron Field with the home opener now scheduled for April 26th against MSOE.