Griz fall 1-0 to No. 5 Ducks

Friday, February 24

Honolulu, Hawaii

4:30 PM (MT)

Montana

4-6

Oregon

11-0

Montana

Oregon

2/24/2017 7:58:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana held the nation's No. 5-ranked softball team to one run and just five hits, but the Grizzlies couldn't come up with a timely hit of their own and fell to Oregon on Friday afternoon at the Bank of Hawaii Invitational in Honolulu.

Colleen Driscoll (1-3) got the start and limited the Ducks (11-0) to one run, a season low for Oregon, through four innings. Maddy Stensby pitched two innings of one-hit relief.

Montana (4-6) had a runner on second in the first, sixth and seventh innings, the sixth and seventh with fewer than two outs, but all were stranded as Oregon remained unbeaten on the season.

"I was ecstatic with the pitching staff and the defense today," said coach Jamie Pinkerton. "They gave us an opportunity to win.

"When you play a top-five team, you're going to run into good pitching. We had opportunities, but we couldn't move them in. They were able to pitch around it, and we weren't able to get the big hit. That's the difference between winning and losing these types of games."

After MaKenna McGill led off the game with a strikeout, Sydney Stites singled up the middle. She advanced to second on a fielder's choice, but Bethany Olea struck out swinging to end the threat.

Six times Montana batters would come to the plate on Friday with a runner on second, and five times they struck out against a pitching staff that now has a 1.15 ERA.

Oregon, held to two hits through the first three innings, scored the game's only run in the bottom of the fourth.

Driscoll got the first two batters out, then gave up a single up the middle. She hit the next batter to put runners on first and second, and Mia Camuso, who is batting .469 this season, put the Ducks up 1-0 with a single to left.

With runners on second and third, Driscoll got the next batter, her final of the game, to foul out to right field.

"Colleen did an excellent job today," said Pinkerton. "She didn't give up the big inning, and that kept us in the ball game. I was really happy with her performance.

"And I was happy about Stensby coming in and pitching two innings of shutout ball."

Alex Wardlow led off the sixth with a double to right center, but Miranda Elish (2-0) worked out of the jam by getting Gabby Martinez to ground out, then striking out McGill and Stites.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Olea doubled to left center, which led to Elish getting pulled for Maggie Balint.

The freshman struck out Ashlyn Lyons and Madison Saacke to end the game and pick up her second save of the season.

"You don't tell your team you're outmatched on paper. We just told them they couldn't extend innings or give extra outs, and we didn't," said Pinkerton.

"We preached to go out and compete and play hard, and that's what we did. We played our tail ends off."

Montana will face Oregon again on Saturday at 1 p.m. (MT), then play UNLV at 3 p.m. (MT).