Montana drops pair of games in Hawaii

Saturday, February 25

Honolulu, Hawaii

1:00 PM (MT)

Montana

4-7

Oregon

13-0

Oregon

Montana

2/25/2017 8:41:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team lost a pair of games on Saturday at the Bank of Hawaii Invitational in Honolulu, falling 6-0 to No. 5 Oregon and 5-4 to UNLV.

The Grizzlies (4-8) opened the tournament on Friday with a 1-0 loss to the Ducks. One day later, they were still unable to put up a run, getting held to three hits, two of which came from Gabby Martinez.

"It was two games where their pitching was better than our hitting," said coach Jamie Pinkerton. "We just couldn't string anything together today.

"We played well, but we made some mistakes, and they were able to turn those into runs."

Facing freshman pitcher Michaela Hood, Oregon (13-0) got on the board in the top of the first on an RBI groundout, then added an unearned run in the second.

Hood worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third and escaped two more runners on base in the fourth to keep it a 2-0 game.

The Ducks made it 4-0 with a two-run home run in the top of the fifth. Facing Sara Stephenson in the seventh, Oregon scored a pair of unearned runs to make it 6-0.

Martinez's second hit of the game, a single to left field to lead off the sixth, was followed two batters later by a single by Sydney Stites to left, but Maggie Balint, who improved to 7-0, got a groundout from Bethany Olea and fly out from Delene Colburn to end the threat.

"We needed to be near perfect to have a shot like we had yesterday, and we weren't as sharp today," said Pinkerton. "But we still played well. I was happy with the way we competed."

Montana fell behind in the first inning as well against UNLV, when the Rebels scored off starter Maddy Stensby with a sacrifice fly to right.

For the first time on the trip, the Grizzlies had an answer. In the top of the third, Montana scored four times, with Olea driving in the first run on a groundout. Madison Saacke made it 3-1 with a two-run single, and Ashlyn Lyons put her team up 4-1 with an RBI single to left.

But for the fourth time this season, a three-run lead led to a loss. UNLV answered with two runs in the bottom of the third, tied it in the fourth and scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth on a solo home run.

"We weren't able to get a shutdown inning after we went up 4-1," said Pinkerton.

UNLV had a two-out, two-run home run in the third, scored an unearned run off Stensby with two outs in the fourth and won it in the sixth with a solo shot from Alyssa Navarro off a Stensby change-up.

Montana had runners on in the fourth and fifth innings but couldn't score. In the top of the seventh, Stites, the leadoff batter, got hit by a pitch. Olea followed with a single through the right side.

Colburn fouled out to the third baseman for the inning's first out, which brought up Saacke. She lined one to right field, which was caught, and Stites, off with contact, was thrown out at second.

"We weren't as sharp in the second game today. We had some mental mistakes and lost focus, and UNLV made us pay," said Pinkerton.

Saacke, Lyons and Martinez all had two hits for Montana.

The Grizzlies will wrap up the tournament on Sunday with another meeting against UNLV at 1 p.m. (MT) and a game against host Hawaii at 3 p.m. (MT).