Road warriors heading to Utah

The Montana softball team, already with trips to Iowa, California and Hawaii under its belt, will be in Utah this week for the Red Desert Classic in St. George.

The Grizzlies (5-9) will play games against Nebraska-Omaha, Utah, UNLV, Utah Valley and Utah State.

The schedule:
Friday -- vs. Nebraska-Omaha, 12:30 p.m.
Friday -- vs. Utah, 3 p.m.
Saturday -- vs. UNLV, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday -- vs. Utah Valley, 4 p.m.
Sunday -- vs. Utah State, 10 a.m.

The opponents:

Nebraska-Omaha (4-9)
Runs scored/allowed: 36/76
Team batting average: .241
Team ERA: 4.80
History: Nebraska-Omaha leads 2-1.
Notable: Montana opened the season against the Mavericks at Northern Iowa's tournament in Cedar Falls. The Grizzlies led 4-2 through the top of the fourth, but UNO struck for five in the bottom half of that inning to rally for the win.

No. 16/17 Utah (11-2)
Runs scored/allowed: 85/11
Team batting average: .337
Team ERA: 0.69
History: First meeting
Notable: Utah opened the season with 11 straight wins, nine by shutout, before dropping a pair of games to San Diego State and Cal State Fullerton last weekend at the Mary Nutter Classic at Cathedral City, Calif. The Utes' 0.69 ERA ranks second in the nation.

UNLV (9-5)
Runs scored/allowed: 62/60
Team batting average: .272
Team ERA: 3.17
History: Tied 1-1
Notable: Montana and UNLV played twice last weekend at the Bank of Hawaii Invitational in Honolulu. The Rebels came back from a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4 on Saturday. On Sunday, Michaela Hood threw a complete-game shutout, scattering four singles as the Grizzlies handed Morgan Ettinger her first loss.

Utah Valley (0-4)
Runs scored/allowed: 16/27
Team batting average: .290
Team ERA: 4.97
History: First meeting
Notable: The Wolverines have played in just one tournament to date, losing all four games it played at the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City, Calif. Three of those were one-run decisions, against San Diego in extra innings, Saint Mary's and UC Davis.

Utah State (8-3)
Runs scored/allowed: 46/34
Team batting average: .280
Team ERA: 1.80
History: Utah State leads 3-1
Notable: The Aggies opened the season 4-0 and have had four games cancelled due to weather. Senior pitcher April Brown is 4-0 with a 1.19 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 35.1 innings pitched. Freshman pitcher Kellie White is 3-1 with a 1.55 ERA.

Weekend preview: After facing just two opponents -- Santa Clara and Seattle -- over four games two weeks ago and three opponents -- Oregon, UNLV, Hawaii -- over five games last week, Montana will be back to a full tournament schedule this week, with five games against five different opponents.

"It's a little more difficult to put that many scouting reports together and your plan of attack, especially with our short turnaround after traveling back from Hawaii," said coach Jamie Pinkerton. "But having played two of the teams already makes it a little easier."

After a rematch with Nebraska-Omaha on Friday, Montana will play a ranked opponent for the second time in two weeks when the Grizzlies face No. 16/17 Utah.

Montana fared well against No. 5 Oregon last weekend in Hawaii, falling 1-0 and 6-0. In the 1-0 loss, the Grizzlies had a runner on second with less than two outs in both the sixth and seventh innings but couldn't score.

Scoring will be just as tough against the Utes, who have allowed just 11 runs through 13 games, with nine shutouts.

Junior pitcher Katie Donovan is 7-2 with a 0.67 ERA and has 43 strikeouts in 42.0 innings of work. Junior pitcher Miranda Viramontes is 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA and 26 strikeouts. The Grizzlies will see one of those two starters on Friday.

Montana will play its third game in eight days against UNLV on Saturday, then play winless Utah Valley, which has only played four games so far this season, with a pair of cancellations. A matchup against 8-3 Utah State, another team with strong pitching, awaits on Sunday.

Montana doesn't quite have some of those teams' pitching, but the Grizzlies are getting closer. It's early, but last year's 5.26 ERA has dropped to 3.94 through 14 games. That figure leads the Big Sky.

"I feel good about our pitching staff. Our ERA is down, our hits per inning are down. After the first weekend, our walks have come down. It's been one of our bright spots," said Pinkerton.

All five pitchers have won a game this season. Freshman Michaela Hood has the team's best ERA of 2.01 and last weekend had the team's best start of the season, going the distance in a 6-0 shutout of UNLV to hand Morgan Ettinger (now 8-1) her only loss of the season.

Colleen Driscoll also had a quality start in Hawaii. She held Oregon to one run on four hits through four innings in Montana's 1-0 loss. Maddy Stensby pitched two innings of one-hit relief.

"A lot of teams don't have five pitchers they can go to, so we've been able to do a good job of mixing and matching. It helps when you're able to pitch to matchups," said Pinkerton.

"They are a year older and more mature. I think they are getting more comfortable and getting better at hitting spots. I just like the fact that our pitching is keeping us in ball games. We haven't had to go out and score seven, eight, nine runs to win."

Montana's .266 batting average through three weekends ranks second in the Big Sky behind Weber State's .279, but it's a long way from last season's .326 average.

But because of the improved pitching, Montana is 5-9, the same record as last year's team through 14 games, and while facing a more challenging schedule this year.

The Grizzlies were held to three hits in both of their games against Oregon last weekend in Hawaii but busted out for a season-high 13 hits in Sunday's shutout of UNLV.

After scoring twice in the top of the first against Hawaii in the final game of the tournament, Montana had five hits and scored just one run over the final six innings.

"The offense has shown signs of coming out, but it's been sporadic," said Pinkerton. "We've yet to have more than one or two hitters at a tournament get hot. We had one inning against UNLV when we got on a roll, but we haven't had any frenzy-hitting games.

"We haven't been able to do a lot of live practice between tournaments (because of the weather), so a lot of that is a timing issue. The offense isn't sputtering. We're still scoring runs, but we haven't scored in bunches like we have in the past.

"As the weather warms up and we can get outside, we can work on some things. A lot of those things will resolve themselves as it warms up."

Tori Lettus had Montana's best batting average in five games at Hawaii of .500, but she had just six at-bats. Gabby Martinez hit .467 and led the team with seven hits, including her third career double, to earn all-tournament honors.

Sydney Stites pounded out six hits. Delene Colburn and Bethany Olea both had five. Colburn and Stites both had home runs, giving Colburn a team-high four for the season. Stites has three. The rest of the team has two.

Upcoming: Montana will travel to Oklahoma next week for Tulsa's Golden Hurricane Classic. The Grizzlies will play Texas Tech, California, Wichita State, Tulsa and Texas Tech a second time.

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Players Mentioned

Delene Colburn

Colleen Driscoll

Michaela Hood

Tori Lettus

Gabby Martinez

Bethany Olea

Maddy Stensby

Sydney Stites

University of Montana Athletics