KENOSHA, Wis. – Justin Hausser has shown remarkable progress over the past three seasons, becoming a standout player for the Milwaukee Panthers.
Hausser, a native of De Forest, Wisconsin, has made a name for himself right in his home state. Last season, he led Milwaukee with 72 hits in 227 at-bats. The 6-foot-1 first baseman also posted a team-high .317 batting average.
Hausser’s development into a standout Division I player is impressive. As he gears up for his senior season and eyes a potential professional career, Hausser is honing his skills in the highly competitive Northwoods League, one of the top college summer wood-bat leagues.
“He’s a guy that we brought in initially as a walk-on because we saw some ability in there that we thought we could tap into with some developments, and he’s starting to kind of blossom into what we thought he could be,” Milwaukee coach Shaun Wegner said. “He was a guy who was an offensive-first player when we first got him, and he’s done a lot of individual work. He’s just got a pretty good eye, and he can evaluate pitches better than most of the guys on our team.”
Hausser is playing for the Kenosha Kingfish in the Northwoods League. He is batting .295 in 21 games. For Hausser, it’s an opportunity to receive additional at-bats and work on areas of his game he needs to improve.
“I just try to stay locked in with the at-bats and just try to obviously improve upon those,” said Hausser. “The weaknesses that I have in those weak points, and try to focus on those like be better next fall and next spring.”
In the spring, Hausser hit three home runs in 227 at-bats for the Panthers. He has one home run in 78 at-bats so far this summer. He aims to find ways to become a better extra-base hitter and tap into additional power.
“We’re just trying to give him as many at-bats as possible,” said Wegner. “Even if he struggles, that’s good too, because we want him to learn how to deal with failure and how to overcome it quickly, as compared to letting it kind of linger and fester and just hang around.”
As a junior in the spring, Hausser displayed notable contact skills, a respectable feel for the strike zone and quality defense at first base.
The talented first baseman has a quality overall skill set. As he prepares for his senior season, he wants to continue to evolve and take the next step as a baseball player.
“I would say now, now it’s definitely my bat-to-ball skills, just being able to make the defense make a play and try to hit,” said Hausser on his strengths. “I also love to use the opposite field, which my coaches always loved as a lefty hitter. Using the opposite field kind of surprises teams a lot. So I’d say my biggest strength is definitely to go into left field as a lefty.”
As he focuses on his development, Hausser’s ultimate goal is to develop into an MLB draft prospect and someone who can play professionally after his collegiate career.
“Like every college baseball player, my goal is to play baseball, and so, yeah, if something comes about, I absolutely want to pursue that baseball career past college,” said Hausser.
