Bengals work extra to get past Grizzlies

Sunday, April 30

Missoula, Mont.

1:00 PM

Montana

30-21, 13-5

Idaho State

13-24, 6-11

Idaho State

Montana

4/30/2017 5:50:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

It was a game of inches on Sunday at Grizzly Softball Field, the margin of Idaho State's 5-3, eight-inning victory no larger than a little extra spin on the ball that drove in the game-winning runs for the Bengals.

After Ashlyn Lyons tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh with a clutch two-out, two-strike drive up the middle, Idaho State put runners at second and third with two outs against reliever Maddy Stensby in the top of the eighth.

Emma Bordenkecher hit one off the end of her bat that landed between Stensby and shortstop Delene Colburn. Had it taken a true hop, Colburn likely would have made the final out of the inning. As it was, the spin forced her to bare-hand it, and her throw to first was late.

Running with contact, both Bengals scored on the play, giving Idaho State the final game of the series.

"We've had a lot of breaks this year, and this was just a day that it didn't go our way," said coach Jamie Pinkerton. "It wasn't in the cards, and if you're a softball fan, that's going to happen.

"Del made a heck of a play and a heck of an effort. It was a cue ball and had a lot of English. She did everything she could. It just didn't work."

Montana had to play from behind most of the game and never did hold a lead. Idaho State got to Montana starter Michaela Hood, who struck out 10, for a run in the first and a run in the second, and the Grizzlies evened it with a rally cut short in the bottom of the fifth.

The teams traded runs in the seventh, with the Bengals scoring theirs courtesy of maybe an inch of daylight between Lyons' foot and the bag at first when she was pulled off by a throw for what would have been the third out of the inning.

Every either-or call that went Montana's way on Saturday, when the Grizzlies opened the series with 1-0 and 6-3 wins, went Idaho State's way on Sunday.

"I think emotionally we were a little flat after two big wins yesterday. I don't think we were flat effort-wise. I just think emotionally we were a little flat," said Pinkerton. "And I think we lost our poise a little bit with a couple of calls that went against us."

After getting hamstrung by Hood on Saturday in Montana's 1-0 win, Idaho State didn't waste any time getting to the Grizzlies' ace one day later.

Kacie Burnett singled up the middle in the first and two batters later Ashlyn Ames, ISU's starting pitcher, helped her cause with her own RBI single up the middle.

Pinkerton tried to go for the early tie in the bottom of the first when he sent Lyons home from second on a single to left field by Colburn, but she was cut down at the plate.

The Bengals made it 2-0 with a two-out double and single in the second, and the Grizzlies wouldn't threaten again until the fifth against Ames, who worked all eight innings to pick up her sixth win of the season.

With Dani Walker scheduled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, Pinkerton went to pinch hitter Tori Lettus, who had had just six at-bats through Montana's first 17 league games.

Lettus started the game-tying rally with a double down the left-field line. She was moved up to third by Alex Wardlow, who reached on her sacrifice bunt attempt, and driven in by Anne Mari Petrino, who singled down the left-field line.

After Lyons, who finished 3 for 4, her first three-hit game of the season, singled to load the bases, Olea walked to even the score 2-2.

There was still just one out, and Colburn was coming to the plate, and it doesn't get any more ideal than that.

In a game of inches, her drive to right field was snagged out of the air by the Idaho State first baseman, and the runner at first was doubled up, ending the threat. Just like that, tied going into the sixth instead of taking a one- or two-run lead.

Hood worked out of a second-and-third jam in the sixth, but after she gave up a one-out double to the fiery Ames in the seventh, Pinkerton went to his bullpen and brought in Stensby.

"I just thought at that point in time it was probably good for a change," said Pinkerton. "Hood was good enough to win, but we didn't give her a lot of run support."

After a sacrifice bunt advanced ISU's pinch runner to third with two outs, Stensby forced a ground ball to Olea at third. She had just enough of a bobble that she had to rush her throw, and it pulled Lyons off the base by the smallest of margins, a ruling confirmed after the three umpires gathered to discuss.

Alex Wardlow started Montana's second rally of the game, leading off the seventh with a single to left. Groundouts by Petrino and Gabby Martinez moved pinch runner Kylie Hayton to third, but Lyons came up with two outs and was quickly down two strikes.

Unfazed, she roped one to center to tie the game. "There are some kids who when they get two strikes they toughen up, and Ashlyn is one of those," said Pinkerton.

Had Lyons kept contact with the base in the top of the seventh, her hit in the bottom of the inning could have been the game-winner. And had Bordenkecher's squibber in the eighth not come with so much spin, the game might still be going on. But that's softball, at times a game of inches.

The results of the weekend set up a mirror scenario of last year's regular-season series with Weber State, that one played in Missoula.

The Grizzlies, already a top-two seed, which comes with its own advantages, will need to sweep next weekend's series in Ogden to win the regular-season title and host the Big Sky tournament.

Even one win for the Wildcats, who are 35-4 at home since the start of the 2015 season, clinches it for Weber State for the second straight year.

"We're going to have to win three games down there, and I wouldn't want it any other way, and I wouldn't want to do it with any other team," said Pinkerton. "It will be for all the marbles, and if we want them, we're going to have to go and take it."