GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Season No. 17 is on the horizon for Davenport baseball as they make a trip to Johnson City, Tenn. to battle against Northwood University on a neutral field. The four-game set kicks off on Friday, Feb. 14 at TVA Credit Union Ballpark, home of the Johnson City Doughboys of the Appalachian League of Minor League Baseball. The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 11:00 AM ET followed by single games on Saturday (2:00 PM ET) and Sunday (12:00 PM ET) weather permitting.

SEASON OUTLOOK
This year's team will look vastly different from 2024 (20-34) as just 14 returning players make up the core of the team. The advent of the transfer portal led to a large number of holes to fill and head coach Kevin Tidey and his staff believe they have new pieces in place to make another run at the top of the heap in the conference.

The pitching department was hit the most by departures as four starters are gone. The lone returning starter is redshirt senior Austin VanderMarkt and the good news is that he led the team with a 4.22 earned-run average and four wins a season ago in his first year as a regular starter. The Panthers are relying on the experience at the NCAA Division I level to fill other rotation spots. Leading candidates include Keegan Batka (Central Michigan), Adam Berghorst (Indiana State), and James Geshel (Western Michigan). The team is also excited about the back end of the bullpen and the addition of Mason Hill (Aquinas College).

The offensive lineup lost a good portion of the heart of the order in Connor Hnilo, Josh Robinson, and Anthony Aloisio. All three of them were honored by the GLIAC in the postseason with all-conference honors. Robinson was first team, Hnilo was second team, and Aloisio was honorable mention. Michael Tchavdarov, a Second Team All-GLIAC pick in 2024, is back and spent time as the leadoff hitter. He produced a .312 batting average in 54 starts with 63 hits, nine doubles, seven triples, six home runs, and 34 RBI. He also led the team with 16 stolen bases. Logan Todd returns for his fourth season as a middle infielder and hit .280 in his first full-time role in 2024. He started in 51 games and drove in 17 runs. Coltrane Rubner is hoping to regain the form he had in 2023 entering his senior campaign. He batted .329 in 2023 and saw his batting average dip to .265 in 2024. Rubner has 97 games under his belt at Davenport and has 10 home runs and 64 RBI during that time. Also back from a starting role last year is designated hitter Xander Reisbig (.278 batting average and 21 RBI).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Tchavdarov begins his final season already cemented in the DU record books. He currently holds single-game records for hits in a game with five coming at Purdue Northwest on Apr. 15, 2023 and had three doubles in a game to tie the school record back on May 5, 2023 against Wayne State. He ranks second in Panther history with 13 triples but is still 10 shy of Nolan Anspaugh's record of 23. In addition, Tchavdarov has been hit by pitch 22 times which is tied for eighth in school history. Rubner also checks in on the all-time list with 70 walks which is a tie for seventh. Hill had a storied career at Aquinas College before coming over to DU. He entered the AQ record book with the most career appearances (68) since records were kept starting with the 1984 season. He also struck out 217 batters as a Saint which ranks second trailing just Tim Sullivan's 223 K's (1988-91). Conor Gausselin, also an Aquinas transfer, started in 35 games for the Saints which is tied for fourth. 

SERIES HISTORY
Davenport and Northwood have had an intense history as both teams have won 12 times in the all-time series. Most notably, a bulk of the contests were played when the Timberwolves were a member of the GLIAC. Since their move to the G-MAC, they have not played during the regular season. The last matchup was a big one back on May 20, 2022 in the NCAA Regionals. Davenport was hosting the sub-regional for the first time and trailed 5-1 before rallying for the victory. The game went 11 innings and DU was the visiting team. They scored in the top of the 11th as Christian Petre doubled with two outs and Logan Hylek doubled him home with the winning run. Spencer Vainavicz then struck out a pair in the bottom of the 11th to earn the win.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Northwood was picked to finish second in the G-MAC North Division in the preseason coaches poll that was released on Feb. 4. The Timberwolves got one first-place vote and had 57 poll points trailing just Ashland with 67. Northwood is coming off a 33-23 season a year ago and they went 23-9 in the G-MAC. They were defeated twice in the conference postseason tournament by Tiffin, but still advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional hosted by Saginaw Valley State. They beat Ashland 11-4 in their opening game, but then fell 6-4 against the host Cardinals and 16-4 against Ashland. The Timberwolves lost their top three hitters who all batted over .300 in Matt Magno, Blake Salamon, and Ben Clark. 

LIVE COVERAGE
No live coverage for the games this weekend due to the neutral location.