Homecomings, good opponents on tap

The Montana softball team is scheduled to play five games over the course of four days this week at the Golden Hurricane Classic at Tulsa, Okla.

The tournament, which will be played at the Collins Family Softball Complex, also includes No. 19 California, Texas Tech and Wichita State.

With almost a 100 percent chance of rain forecasted for Saturday, the tournament schedule has already gone through a modification.

Instead of opening against Texas Tech on Friday morning, Montana, which arrived in Tulsa a day early because of an airline schedule change, will play Tulsa on Thursday at 5 p.m. (MT). Those teams were scheduled to play on Saturday evening.

Game-time conditions for Montana's opener on Thursday evening: sunny, mid-70s. Dreamy.

The schedule:
Thursday -- vs. Tulsa, 5 p.m. (MT)
Friday -- vs. Texas Tech, 9:30 a.m. (MT)
Friday -- vs. California, 11:30 a.m. (MT)
Saturday -- vs. Wichita State, 12:30 p.m. (MT)
Sunday: vs. Texas Tech, 10 a.m. (MT)

Loaded field: Three of the four teams Montana will face this week -- Tulsa, California and Wichita State -- played in the NCAA tournament last season. All four opponents are above .500 this year and are collectively 21 games over .500.

"We've been in tournaments with good teams, but I think from top to bottom this is the toughest field we've seen since I've been at Montana," said third-year coach Jamie Pinkerton.

The opponents:

Tulsa (11-9)
Runs scored/allowed: 72/68
Team batting average: .264
Team ERA: 2.75
History: First meeting
Notable: Tulsa went on the road on Wednesday and faced No. 9 and defending national champion Oklahoma and lost 1-0 in 10 innings. Emily Watson, who is 8-3 with a 1.75 ERA, went the distance, which means Montana will likely avoid the hard-throwing junior right-hander on Thursday night.

Texas Tech (12-9)
Runs scored/allowed: 110/99
Team batting average: .259
Team ERA: 3.94
History: Texas Tech leads 1-0. Montana, up 2-0 after two innings, lost to the Red Raiders 8-5 on Feb. 5, 2015, at New Mexico State's tournament in the Grizzlies' second game in program history. Ashlyn Lyons had a pair of hits.
Notable: Texas Tech, which has won three of its last four, has averaged 7.7 runs scored over its last six games and is averaging more than five per game for the season.

No. 19 California (15-3)
Runs scored/allowed: 102/53
Team batting average: .303
Team ERA: 2.66
History: First meeting
Notable: California's losses this season have come against North Carolina, Northwestern and Florida, which is 20-1 and ranked No. 1 in this week's ESPN/USA Softball poll. Sophomore pitcher Zoe Conley is 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA. She has nine complete games and three shutouts.

Wichita State (11-7)
Runs scored/allowed: 111/84
Team batting average: .336
Team ERA: 3.47
History: First meeting
Notable: The Shockers, who lost 11-3 at Oklahoma State on Wednesday, went 4-0 at Houston's season-opening tournament and 5-0 at Texas-Arlington's tournament two weeks ago. Wichita State has four players batting .368 or better this season, led by senior infielder Kelli Spring's .417 average.

Weekend preview: While ultimately the tournament is about competing and representing Montana, and the Grizzlies improving as the start of Big Sky Conference games nears, this week's trip is a homecoming of sorts for three members of the team.

Junior centerfielder MaKenna McGill was born and raised in Claremore, located 20 miles northeast of Tulsa, and junior pitcher Haley Young hails from Bixby, a dozen miles south of town.

And then there is the school's connection with Pinkerton, who was an assistant coach for the Golden Hurricane in the mid-90s, is a graduate of the school and was Tulsa's head coach from 2001 to 2004.

Tulsa had not had a winning record in program history prior to Pinkerton taking over in 2001, and his first team went 13-42. In 2002 the Collins Family Softball Complex opened and the Golden Hurricane went 48-16, one of the best one-year turnarounds in NCAA history.

Pinkerton left for Arkansas after the 2004 season, and the program hasn't had a losing record since 2001, based on the foundation that Pinkerton built.

John Bargfeldt, the coach since 2006, has taken Tulsa to eight NCAA tournaments.

"I'm excited for MaKenna and Haley, but I don't think it's hit me yet," said Pinkerton. "It will probably hit me when I see the field that I helped design.

"It's a special place. I'm from the area and went to Tulsa, so I have a deep love for the school. I still have soft spot in my heart for that place, but when the lights go on (Thursday night), I'll want to win."

That Montana is facing a talented field is probably the best thing that could happen, considering the Grizzlies have played their best softball this season against ranked opponents.

Montana lost 1-0 to No. 5 Oregon in Hawaii on Feb. 24 and was in a 2-2 game with No. 16 Utah last weekend at St. George, Utah.

It's the other games, when Montana isn't facing a ranked team that has been the problem. Five times this season the Grizzlies have lost when holding a lead of three or more runs.

"We'll try to continue to work on playing seven solid innings of softball this week," said Pinkerton. "In our games against ranked teams, we haven't beaten ourselves. We've played seven solid innings and proved we can play with the nation's elite teams.

"We've got to be more consistent at playing seven good innings in all our games. Every team is going to have bad games, but if we can play consistently like we have against ranked teams, we have a chance to be a really good ball club. If not we'll hover around .500 and won't achieve our goals."

This week is road trip No. 5 of 5 to open the season. Montana will host the three-day Grizzly Classic next weekend at Grizzly Softball Field, with Seattle and Maine traveling to Missoula.

It is the start of 14 straight home games for the Grizzlies. After six games at the tournament, Montana will host Boise State in a midweek doubleheader on Tuesday, March 21, then open Big Sky Conference play with home series against North Dakota and Southern Utah.

Montana's only other remaining road trips, not including the postseason, are to Sacramento State, Portland State and Weber State.

"It's going to be great for several reasons," said Pinkerton. "We'll be getting off the road and sleeping in our own beds, and we'll be going to class almost a full week instead of just three days a week.

"We also know that after this weekend, we only have three more trips left, and only one more flight. You can still have trouble with bus travel, but bus trips seem to be a little more relaxing."

The last time out: Montana went 2-3 at the Red Desert Classic last weekend at St. George, Utah.

The Grizzlies lost to Nebraska-Omaha, 9-5, and Utah, 5-2, on Friday, swept UNLV, 6-2, and Utah Valley, 9-6, on day two and lost to Utah State on Sunday, 8-2.

Montana, behind the hitting of Delene Colburn (.538), Madison Saacke (.455) and Anne Mari Petrino (.400), batted .295 at the tournament, but the Grizzlies' opponents batted .327 and the team's pitching staff had a five-game ERA of 5.15.

The weekend upped Montana's season batting average to .274, second in the Big Sky behind only Weber State's .295. It also upped the Grizzlies' ERA to 4.27. That ranks third in the league behind Sacramento State (3.12) and Idaho State (4.18).

Colburn batted a team-best .538 at the tournament, with at least one hit in all five games and a run scored in four. She enters this week's tournament on an eight-game hitting streak.

Tournament briefs: Tori Lettus's four hits against Nebraska-Omaha were a career high. ... Ashlyn Lyons had a team-high six RBIs at the tournament. ... Anne Mari Petrino had a pair of hits against both Nebraska-Omaha and Utah Valley. ... Madison Saacke had two home runs in five games. She entered the tournament with one for her career. ... Maddy Stensby got the first win of the weekend, pitching 5 1/3 innings while giving up just one earned run to UNLV. ... Sara Stephenson picked up the team's second win, against Utah Valley. She was the pitcher of record in the top of the seventh when the team's batters turned a 6-2 deficit into a 9-6 lead.

Montana three-dot notes: Bethany Olea and Delene Colburn, both hitting .383 this season, with 23 hits in 60 at-bats, are tied for sixth in the Big Sky in batting average. ... Both are tied for second in hits behind the 24 of Weber State's Takesha Saltern. ... Olea is second behind Saltern in runs scored with 14, Colburn is third with 13. ... Sydney Stites, who had six of her RBIs in a single game, against Santa Clara on Feb. 19, is tied for the Big Sky lead in runs batted in with 16 with Weber State's Sara Hingsberger. Colburn ranks third with 12. ... Olea had two more doubles last weekend to up her league-leading total to eight. ... Colburn leads the Big Sky in home runs with five, Stites is tied for second with four. ... Colburn, with five home runs and six doubles, leads the Big Sky in total bases with 44. The next closest on the list has 36. ... Michaela Hood (3.06) and Colleen Driscoll (3.78) both rank in the top 10 in the Big Sky in ERA. The only other team with multiple pitchers in the top 10 is Sacramento State, which has three. ... The seven runs Montana scored in the top of the seventh against Utah Valley was its highest-scoring inning this season and led to a season-high nine runs. ... The 13 hits allowed to Utah State on Sunday were one off the season high of 14 by Seattle on Feb. 18.

Upcoming: The Grizzly Classic, with three games on Friday, three on Saturday, two on Sunday between Montana, Maine and Seattle.

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Delene Colburn

Colleen Driscoll

Michaela Hood

Tori Lettus

Ashlyn Lyons

MaKenna McGill

Bethany Olea

Anne Mari Petrino

Madison Saacke

Maddy Stensby

Sara Stephenson

Sydney Stites

Haley Young

Related Videos