Griz to face more ranked competition

The Montana softball team will travel west this week and play five games in three days at the Oregon Duck Invitational in Eugene, with games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Montana and Oregon will be joined at the tournament by Weber State, Toledo and Bryant, though the Grizzlies and Wildcats won't play, instead saving future matchups for Missoula early next month as part of the Big Sky Conference schedule for both teams.

After playing its first 24 games of the season on the road, Montana will open at home on Tuesday, hosting Providence for a doubleheader at Grizzly Softball Field, with first pitch at 2 p.m.

Montana will stay at home, hosting Utah Valley for the Grizzly Classic later in the week, hosting the Wolverines in single games on Thursday (4 p.m.), Friday (4 p.m.) and Saturday (noon).

The schedule:

Friday, 11 a.m. (MT) -- Montana vs. Bryant
Friday, 4 p.m. (MT) -- Montana vs. Toledo
Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (MT) -- Montana vs. Toledo
Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (MT) -- Montana at Oregon
Sunday, 1 p.m. (MT) -- Montana at Oregon

The teams:

Montana is 5-14 overall but 4-4 over its last eight games. Last weekend at the Red Desert Classic in St. George, Utah, the Grizzlies split two extra-inning games with Seattle, dropped a pair to Boise State and roughed up Nevada 16-3.

Bryant is 4-5 and hasn't played since Feb. 25. The Bulldogs opened their season at the Arizona Hillenbrand Invitational, where Montana was also, and lost to Troy, Colorado State and Arizona, while defeating Louisiana-Monroe, four teams the Grizzlies played and went 1-4 against.

Toledo is 10-9 and didn't play the second weekend of the season but picked up doubleheaders against Seattle and Portland State this week on its way to Eugene, making it a nine-game road trip. The Rockets got swept in both, losing 6-4 and 7-4 to the Redhawks and 11-8 and 6-5 to the Vikings.

Oregon, which played in the Women's College World Series last June, is 18-4 and ranked 5th and 6th in this week's national polls. The Ducks' four losses have all come to ranked teams, by a combined total of five runs. Oregon makes its home debut on Thursday night against Toledo to open the Duck Invitational.

Coverage: Montana's two games against Oregon will have free video coverage through the Pac-12. Links can be found at GoGriz.com. The Grizzlies' other three games can be monitored through live stats.

History:

Montana vs. Bryant: The Grizzlies and Bulldogs are playing for the first time.

Montana vs. Toledo: The Grizzlies defeated the Rockets in the teams' only matchup to date, 8-6 at Northern Iowa's tournament last season. Bethany Olea had three hits and drove in three.

Montana vs. Oregon: The Grizzlies are 0-2 against the Ducks, losing to No. 5 Oregon twice last February in Hawaii. Montana fell 1-0 behind a pitching performance by Colleen Driscoll and Maddy Stensby that held the Ducks to five hits, and 6-0. The Grizzlies had three hits in each game.

Week in review:

Montana 7, Seattle 6 (8) -- The Grizzlies took a 5-1 lead into the sixth but couldn't hold it, giving up three in the sixth and the tying run with a two-out error in the seventh. Montana won it in the bottom of the eighth on a Madison Saacke RBI double and a walk-off RBI single by MaKenna McGill.

Boise State 9, Montana 5 -- Anne Mari Petrino drove in three in the bottom of the first to put the Grizzlies up 3-0 but the Broncos would score nine runs over the final four innings to pull away. Montana tied it at 5-5 in the fifth on an RBI single by Jessica McAlister and a bases-loaded walk by Dani Walker.

Seattle 6, Montana 5 (9) -- In another tight battle between the Grizzlies and Redhawks, Montana scored two in the top of the eighth, only to be matched by Seattle in the bottom half. After the Grizzlies failed to bring in a runner from second in the ninth, the Redhawks won it on an RBI single in the bottom half.

Boise State 8, Montana 0 -- The Broncos used a grand slam to take a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first before the Grizzlies could record an out, and Boise State rolled from there, piling up 10 hits while limiting Montana to three.

Montana 16, Nevada 3 -- The Grizzlies put an emphatic end to the Wolf Pack's seven-game winning streak, scoring the second-most runs in program history. Montana led 2-1 entering the fourth, then exploded for 10 runs in the fourth, a program record for an inning, while sending 16 batters to the plate.

The state of Montana:

Anyone would have forgiven fans of the Montana softball team had they have been despondent around the middle of the day on Sunday. After all, their favorite team had just been shut down by Boise State 8-0, dropping the Grizzlies to 4-14. And a hot Nevada team was on deck.

But during the hour and 45 minutes of game action that followed first pitch against the Wolf Pack, something changed. For the better.

Colleen Driscoll and Michaela Hood, both of whom had been hit hard earlier in the tournament, combined to hold a Nevada team that had scored 45 runs in its first four games at the Red Desert Classic to three runs on five hits.

Offensively, Montana did something it had never done before: put up a 10 spot in an inning. The Grizzlies sent 16 runners to the plate in the fourth and still left the bases loaded, meaning the inning could have been even better.

And it wasn't just a one-inning anomaly. The Grizzlies scored four more runs on six hits in the fifth before the game was run-ruled.

"I felt like we finally settled into who we were," said coach Melanie Meuchel, who had been hinting for a couple of weeks that her team was getting close to finding its identity. "Before the game, it was a good vibe that the team sent out. They were challenged, and they stepped up to the challenge.

"They settled into who they were as a complete unit and had some great focus, great energy, great drive. It was a big confidence boost."

The 16 runs were the second-most in program history, trailing only Montana's 17-6 victory over Illinois State in 2016 in the record book. The Grizzlies' 19 hits on Sunday rank third.

The top of Montana's order got to work, with MaKenna McGill, Delene Colburn, Ashlyn Lyons and Madison Saacke going 13 for 19, with 11 RBIs and seven runs scored.

McGill scored a career-high four runs, Colburn drove in a season-high five, Lyons had her second four-hit game of the season, and Saacke had a season-high three RBIs.

It was what Meuchel had been hoping for after watching her team score two or fewer runs in half of its first 18 games. Nine of those 18 games were one-run decisions.

"We'd been at that hump a little bit, playing in a lot of close games. I felt like we pushed every single inning that we played against Nevada and that every single pitch we were locked in," said Meuchel.

"We may not have succeeded in everything we did, but we sure competed."

This week brings the final of five early-season road tournaments and two more matchups against a ranked opponent.

Oregon will bring the same No. 5 ranking into this week that the Ducks had last year when the Grizzlies faced them twice in Hawaii.

Montana already faced No. 1 Oklahoma this season, falling 4-0 in Phoenix, and No. 11 Arizona. The Grizzlies led the Wildcats 1-0 in Tucson but gave up a decisive two-run home run in the third to lose 2-1.

"We knew going into this season that with this tournament and the one at Arizona we were going to get some ranked teams on our schedule," said Meuchel. "We knew Arizona would be a ranked team and that Oregon would be top 10 if not within the top five.

"We wanted to give our players these opportunities because these could be places where they could play in the postseason. This gives them an opportunity to be in those environments early in the season."

Facing ranked teams is beginning to become routine for Montana, which played one ranked team in 2015, two in 2016 and five last season, including Washington in the NCAA tournament.

Saturday night's matchup against the Ducks will be the Grizzlies' 11th game against a ranked opponent. Sunday will make it a dozen.

"It's becoming more routine now that we're seeing them more regularly," said Meuchel, whose program is still seeking its first win over a ranked team. "We're getting more comfortable playing teams our players might watch on TV.

"We've played Oregon a couple of times and have played them close. They are a very good team, a very athletic team. They have a lot of power and have phenomenal pitching. It will be a fun game to be on the same field with them and compete."

McGill named Big Sky Player of the Week: Montana senior center fielder MaKenna McGill was named Big Sky Player of the Week on Tuesday, a first for her in her career and the second for the Grizzlies this season. Delene Colburn was honored two weeks ago.

McGill batted .526 in five games last weekend at the Red Desert Classic in St. George, Utah, driving in four and scoring seven times. She had a pair of three-hit games, both Montana victories, and two two-hit games.

She has hit safely in eight of Montana's last nine games. She takes a three-game hitting streak into this week's games and has reached base in 10 straight.

Upcoming: Home games against Providence and Utah Valley, then the start of Big Sky Conference play, with back-to-back road series at Idaho State and current Big Sky leader North Dakota.

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Players Mentioned

Delene Colburn

Colleen Driscoll

Michaela Hood

Ashlyn Lyons

Jessica McAlister

MaKenna McGill

Anne Mari Petrino

Madison Saacke

Maddy Stensby

Dani Walker

University of Montana Athletics