The Saints come marching in

The Montana softball team will take a break from its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when it hosts Carroll on Wednesday in a midweek doubleheader at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula. The opener will start at 3 p.m.

The leadoff: Montana will enter Wednesday's doubleheader riding a four-game winning streak, which followed a five-game losing streak, which followed an eight-game winning streak.

The games kick off a five-game homestand and are the final nonconference contests of the regular season. Montana will host Portland State this weekend, play a series at Northern Colorado next week, then close the regular season with a home set against Sacramento State the first weekend of May.

The Grizzlies put together their four-game winning streak by defeating Weber State at home in the finale of that three-game series, then sweeping Southern Utah on the road last weekend, pulling out three tight contests with some clutch, late-game production.

The four-game winning streak has Montana at 19-22 for the season. The Grizzlies are in a three-way tie for second in the Big Sky at 7-5, even with Sacramento State and North Dakota. Weber State, at 8-4, holds a one-game lead on the chase group.

Carroll, which is counting Wednesday's games as exhibitions, is 27-13 on the season and coming off an 8-2 homestand. The Saints are sitting in fifth place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference at 13-8.

Coverage: Wednesday's doubleheader will be carried by SWX, which Charter cable subscribers can find on channel 199 or over-the-air viewers can find on channel 23.3. The game will be available on the Watch SWX app, at WatchBigSky.com or on Pluto TV, channel 237.

The week in review:

Game 1: Montana 4, Southern Utah 1 -- The game was tied 1-1 going into the seventh before the Grizzlies pulled away with a walk, two hits and an error to score three times. Colleen Driscoll pitched 4 2/3 innings of two-hit relief to pick up the win.

Game 2: Montana 5, Southern Utah 3 -- Maddy Stensby equaled Michaela Hood's program record with 13 strikeouts while throwing a complete game. Tied 1-1 after four, the Grizzlies scored twice in the fifth, twice in the sixth to pull away.

Game 3: Montana 4, Southern Utah 3 -- The Grizzlies trailed 3-2 after six but rallied in the seventh, tying the game on a Delene Colburn single and scoring the game-winning run on an Ashlyn Lyons double. Colleen Driscoll threw the final four innings of scoreless relief to pick up her second win of the weekend.

Series notes:

* Montana improved to 10-3 all-time against Southern Utah, 5-1 in Cedar City.

* The sweep was Montana's second on the road in league and equaled the number of road sweeps pulled off by the 2016 team during its 14-7 run through its league schedule.

* Montana's win on Saturday, after trailing 3-2 through six, was only the second win this season when the Grizzlies trailed going into the seventh. Montana did it against Troy back in February in Tucson, scoring one in the seventh to force extra innings, then plating the winning run in the eighth.

* The Grizzlies limited the Thunderbirds, one of the Big Sky's most explosive offenses, to seven runs in three games on .213 hitting.

* Gabby Martinez went 4 for 8 in the series, giving her seven hits in the last six games, Delene Colburn batted .455, with five RBIs and two runs scored, and Madison Saacke hit .400, with three runs driven in.

* Montana scored nine of its 13 runs in the series in the fifth inning or later and had nine hits with runners in scoring position.

* Montana's ERA in the series of 2.33 dropped the Grizzlies' season average to 3.19, the best in the Big Sky. The Grizzlies also lead the Big Sky in team fielding percentage (.970).

* Montana hit .247 at Southern Utah and ranks last in the Big Sky in team batting average (.240) for the season. The Grizzlies' 44 extra-base hits are 19 fewer than any other team in the league.

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies' next victory will be win No. 100 in program history. Montana has an all-time record of 99-107.

* Montana has lost two games at Grizzly Softball Field this month, falling to Weber State by scores of 3-0 and 11-5 on April 6, but still has an all-time home record of 46-18.

* Delene Colburn was named Big Sky Player of the Week on Monday for her offensive production at Southern Utah. It was her second award of the season, the fifth of her career.

* Colleen Driscoll picked up two of Montana's three wins at Southern Utah last weekend, both in relief. For the series she had a 0.81 ERA with four hits allowed in 8 2/3 innings.

* Maddy Stensby's 13-strikeout game at Southern Utah on Friday afternoon, by inning: 1st: 3, 2nd: 2; 3rd: 0; 4th: 3; 5th: 2; 6th: 2; 7th: 1. Michaela Hood's record, which Stensby matched, came in a 1-0 home win over Northern Colorado last season.

* Ashlyn Lyons has had two hits in four of Montana's last five games. Her triple on Saturday at Southern Utah was the first of her career.

* Gabby Martinez has 11 hits in the last 12 games to raise her batting average from .211 to .257.

* Madison Saacke takes a modest four-game hitting streak into Wednesday's doubleheader. She has gone 5 for 13 during the streak and had her second career triple in Montana's 5-3 win at Southern Utah.

* Delene Colburn also goes into the week on a four-game hitting streak. She went 3 for 4 in Montana's 5-3 win at SUU on Friday, with three RBIs. It was the 63rd multiple-hit game of her career, her 50th multiple-RBI game.

Series history: Montana is 6-0 against Carroll during the regular season, sweeping home doubleheaders in 2015, '16 and '17 by a combined score of 57-3. The Grizzlies scored 10 or more run in the teams' first five meetings, then squeaked out a 3-2 win last April 26 against Carroll starter Allison Williams.

The state of Montana: The Grizzlies were no offensive juggernaut at Southern Utah, hitting just .247 in their three wins, but they paired timely late-game hitting with their usual steady pitching and stout defense to come away with the sweep.

Montana had 21 hits in the series, just four more than Southern Utah, but nine of those came with runners in scoring position and more than half (12) came in the fifth inning or later.

"We looked better at the plate than we have," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "We're playing well defensively day in and day out, so we're feeling a little more comfortable offensively and were able to put both sides together in that series.

"We're building some confidence and belief and trust when it comes down to the end of close games. That's been part of our small battle this season, when we've felt we have to be something we maybe aren't. More and more we're staying true to who we are."

Delene Colburn and Ashlyn Lyons, both batting better than .350 and with nearly half (60) of the team's 126 RBIs, have been steady in the No. 2 and 3 spots in the lineup.

MaKenna McGill has a .375 on-base percentage leading off in front of them and Madison Saacke and Jessica McAlister have both had their moments of production hitting in the No. 4 position during the second half of the season.

But it's quietly been Gabby Martinez, hitting in the No. 9 spot, who is swinging one of the hottest and most confident bats.

She can drive balls to the outfield, she can slap balls through the infield and she can put pressure on the defense with her bunting, which she did on Saturday afternoon in Montana's 4-3 comeback victory over Southern Utah.

With the tying run on first and nobody out in the top of the seventh and Montana trailing 3-2, Martinez dragged a bunt between the pitcher and first base, into space that no one could cover well enough to come close to getting the speedy Martinez at first base.

That set up the top of the lineup, which delivered as Montana rallied to score two runs to finish off the sweep.

"Gabby enjoys being near the bottom of the order, and she's really settled in," said Meuchel. "She's a sparkplug right now and turning the lineup over for us so we can get to some of the top hitters on our team.

"She makes it tough on pitchers and defenses because she's a multi-threat at the plate. She puts a lot of pressure on the defense. Then when she's seeing the ball well and putting it in play at a high percentage, she's even more dangerous."

Montana will take a four-game winning streak into this week's games with Carroll, a program that will forever be linked to the Grizzlies if only because they are in the same state and came into existence at the same time, playing their first seasons in 2015.

They've played every season since and multiple times in the fall exhibition season as well.

"Our team understands who they are because we started together," said Meuchel. "And they are a team that has had a lot of success.

"We have players who have played with people on Carroll, so it's always fun to have them in. They play hard and are well coached. It's exciting for them to play a Division I opponent and exciting for us to play more home games and be able to play a team that brings some competition against us."

Given the teams' regular-season scores over the year, that wouldn't seem to be the case, but Allison Williams kept her team in Montana's 3-2 victory over Carroll last spring, and she pitched her team to a 1-0 victory over the Grizzlies in the fall.

Montana had seven hits off Williams in that game, most of them hit hard, but that particular game of inches went in favor of the Saints, who scored their one run in the fourth.

In the team's second game last fall, a 12-2 Montana victory, Tristin Achenbach struck out 11 in five innings of work.

"In our sport, it doesn't matter who you're playing or what level they compete at. All it takes is someone throwing a great game and someone meeting up with a pitch and putting the ball out of the park for things to turn in a hurry," said Meuchel.

Williams, a sophomore from Kalispell, is 12-6 this spring, junior Tess Eaton is 10-1 with a 2.30 ERA. Williams also is batting .344 and leads the team in home runs with five. Senior Allison Bayer is hitting a team-best .389.

Upcoming: Montana will host Portland State in a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. and a single game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Delene Colburn

Colleen Driscoll

Michaela Hood

Ashlyn Lyons

Gabby Martinez

Jessica McAlister

MaKenna McGill

Madison Saacke

Maddy Stensby

University of Montana Athletics