Pioneers Baseball Team Opens 2023 Season Next Week

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville baseball team will open its 2023 season next week with three games in Topeka, Kansas. The Pioneers were predicted to place six in the WIAC Preseason Poll and return several starters from a year ago.

Head Coach Chad Harris returns for his fifth season at the helm after posting a 13-22 record last year, including an 11-17 mark in WIAC play.

Twenty-three letterwinners return from last season's team, including All-WIAC Honorable Mention Brady Hoppert. The sophomore right-hander posted a 4.22 earned run average across 32.0 innings in his first year with the program. Sophomore Isaac Bixby also returns after leading the team in ERA (4.21), innings pitched (47.0) and strikeouts (48). Senior Sam Hernandez and junior Parker Heidorf will join the two sophomores on the mound to provide the Pioneers nearly 150 innings of production from a year ago.

Offensively, the Pioneers will welcome back several starters including sophomore Jake Wegner, junior Wyatt Molitor, and senior Zach McCoy. Wegner finished second on the team in RBI a year ago with 27 while batting .371 and four home runs. Molitor was a consistent presence at first base, hitting .311 with 41 hits across 32 games played. At shortstop, McCoy finished third on the team with 26 RBI and five home runs while batting .286. Other key returners include senior Mitchell McLaughlin (.333 batting average) and sophomore Slate Higa (.299).

After UW-Platteville's games against Sewanee and Messiah in Tennessee this weekend were cancelled due to weather the first three games of the season will be in Topeka, Kansas. The Pioneers season continues with four games in Pensacola, Florida in the middle of March with the 28-game conference schedule starting at home on Saturday, March 25 against UW-Stevens Point.