Griz drop two in St. George

Friday, March 3

St. George, Utah

12:30 PM

Montana

5-10

Nebraska-Omaha

5-9

Nebraska-Omaha

Montana

3/4/2017 12:43:00 AM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team lost to Nebraska-Omaha and No. 16 Utah on Friday as the Red Desert Classic opened in St. George, Utah.

The Grizzlies (5-11) fell to the Mavericks for the second time this season in their opener, 9-5, then dropped a 5-2 decision to the ranked Utes, a game that was tied entering the sixth inning.

Montana opened the season against Nebraska-Omaha at Northern Iowa's tournament and lost 7-4 despite holding an early 3-0 lead.

On Friday it was a new venue but the same storyline. The Grizzlies scored three in the first on a Delene Colburn single, an Ashlyn Lyons sacrifice fly and a Tori Lettus single.

Madison Saacke made it 4-1 in the third with her second career home run, and MaKenna McGill, on a fielder's choice, put Montana up 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth.

Michaela Hood made the start and scattered four hits through the first five innings, but she got into trouble in the sixth, mostly by her own doing.

She hit the first batter, walked the second. The first six batters to face Hood in the inning reached base before she was pulled for Sara Stephenson.

"We got off to a good start, but we lost focus. We had a four-run lead, and we quit pounding the strike zone," said coach Jamie Pinkerton. "We didn't make any errors, but we didn't make plays to get out of innings either."

Stephenson struck out two to get the Grizzlies out of the inning, but not before the Mavericks tied it 5-5.

Montana went down in order in the sixth, and Nebraska-Omaha, with hits from its first three batters, exploded for four more runs in the top of the seventh off Stephenson (1-3) to blow it open.

The Grizzlies put a pair of runners on base in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't bring either one home.

"We're getting pretty consistent at being inconsistent," said Pinkerton, whose team has lost five times this season when holding a lead of three runs or more.

"We had a couple of bad innings. We gave up crooked numbers, and when that happens, you lose."

Lettus finished 4 for 4, and Colburn, Saacke and Anne Mari Petrino all had a pair of hits.

Montana faced Utah in the Grizzlies' second game, and they pushed the Utes, just like Montana did against Oregon last weekend in Hawaii.

Utah had only allowed 11 runs through its first 13 games, but that didn't faze Montana. MaKenna McGill led off the game with a walk, and three batters later Colburn jacked her team-leading fifth home run to make it 2-0.

The home run came off Utah starter Katie Donovan, who entered the game with a record of 7-2 and a 0.67 ERA.

With Colleen Driscoll holding the Utah bats in check -- the Utes scored on an RBI single in the first and a solo shot in the third to even it at 2-2 -- Montana went into the sixth in a tie game.

The Grizzlies went down in order in their half, and Kelly Martinez won it in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff solo home run. Driscoll (1-4) gave up a hit to the next batter before Pinkerton went to Maddy Stensby in relief.

"We probably stretched Colleen, but she was rolling along," said Pinkerton. "She was getting them out and keeping the ball down and getting ground balls and not getting into trouble. They weren't hitting her hard."

Utah tacked on two more runs in the sixth, and Montana went down in order in the top of the seventh.

"What's frustrating about this team is we can go out and play nationally ranked teams close, but when we're playing fellow mid-majors, we lose focus," said Pinkerton. "At the end of the day, that's on me. I need to get the coaching manual out and figure out how we can finish games.

"We're 2-2 in the sixth with the No. 16 team in the country, but we can't play seven good innings against a mid-major. We've got to figure it out, because if we don't get it fixed it's going to be a long year."

Colburn and Bethany Olea both had a pair of hits in the loss.

Montana will play UNLV for the third time this season at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Utah Valley at 4 p.m.