Griz returning to California for Silicon Valley Classic

The Montana softball team returns to California this week and will play five games in three days at the Silicon Valley Classic, a tournament co-hosted by Santa Clara and San Jose State.

The Grizzlies (1-9) will have matchups against Utah State (3-7), Santa Clara (1-6), CSU Bakersfield (4-3), San Jose State (5-5) and Ball State (7-4).

Montana faced Santa Clara and CSU Bakersfield at the season-opening NorCal Kickoff and last weekend faced San Jose State in Las Cruces, N.M., at the Troy Cox Classic.

The Silicon Valley Classic is early-season tournament No. 3 of 5 for the Grizzlies, who will be in California the next two weekends as well, for the Stanford Invitational and the Bulldog Classic at Fresno State.

The schedule:

Friday, 10 a.m. (MT) -- vs. Utah State (at Santa Clara)
Friday, 5:30 p.m. (MT) -- at Santa Clara
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. (MT) -- vs. CSU Bakersfield (at San Jose State)
Saturday, 3 p.m. (MT) -- at San Jose State
Sunday, 10 a.m. (MT) -- vs. Ball State (at San Jose State)

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies will take a deceiving 1-9 record into the Silicon Valley Classic. Of Montana's nine losses, one came in extra innings, one came on a walk-off home run, four came by one run and another came by two runs when the potential tying run was at the plate.

At a glance (Utah State): The Aggies, picked eighth out of nine teams in the Mountain West preseason poll, are 3-7, with two losses to ranked teams in No. 4 Florida and No. 14 Arizona State. Utah State's wins have come against Pacific, San Diego and Illinois State.

At a glance (Santa Clara): The Broncos are 1-6 and have allowed 53 runs in their seven games played. The fewest they've allowed in a game this season is three, which Montana scored in the Grizzlies' 3-0 shutout in both teams' season opener at the NorCal Kickoff.

At a glance (CSU Bakersfield): The Roadrunners are 4-3 and already approaching their season win total of a year ago, when they went 6-38. One of those four wins came two weeks ago over Montana, when Bakersfield scored one in the bottom of the sixth, one in the seventh to rally for a 3-2 walk-off victory.

At a glance (San Jose State): The Spartans are 5-5 after picking up wins last weekend over Montana and host New Mexico State at the Troy Cox Classic. San Jose State jumped out to a 5-0 lead over the Grizzlies and held on for a 6-5 win, with the potential tying run at second base for the Griz when the game ended.

At a glance (Ball State): The Cardinals enter the weekend with a 7-4 record, which includes a victory over Penn State and four consecutive wins last weekend at the Madeira Beach Invitational in Florida. Ball State went 37-19 last season and are the preseason favorites in the Mid-American Conference.

About last week:

San Jose State 6, Montana 5 -- The Grizzlies fell into a 5-0 hole before getting back into it with three runs in the fifth. Jessica McAlister hit Montana's first home run of the season in the top of the seventh to make it 6-5, which is where it would end, with Kylie Hayton stranded at second base.

Bradley 7, Montana 6 -- The Grizzlies trailed big early once again, falling behind 6-1 through two and a half innings. A Brooklyn Weisgram home run made it 6-5 in the third, an RBI double by Cami Sellers made it 7-6 in the sixth. The Grizzlies had runners at first and second in the seventh when it ended.

Texas State 11, Montana 3 -- One of two games this season that the Grizzlies have not been in. Playing as the visiting team, the Bobcats scored in all six innings, aided by three Montana errors that led to four unearned runs. The Grizzlies had back-to-back home runs in the fifth, by Lexi Knauss and Cami Sellers.

New Mexico State 6, Montana 3 -- The host Aggies took a 3-1 lead into the top of the seventh but the Grizzlies tied it on a Maygen McGrath two-out, two-run home run. New Mexico State won it with a two-out, three-run walk-off home run in the bottom half of the inning.

Texas State 7, Montana 5 -- The Bobcats jumped out to a 5-0 lead, the Grizzlies battled back to tie it with one in the fourth, four in the sixth, evening the score at 5-5 on a two-run double by Lexi Knauss. Texas State answered with two in the bottom, the game ended with McGrath on second in the seventh.

Week 3 storylines:

* Maygen McGrath, Montana's freshman shortstop, won Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors on Monday after hitting .471 with four extra-base hits in the Grizzlies' five games at New Mexico State's Troy Cox Classic.

She becomes the first freshman in program history to earn Big Sky Player of the Week honors. Three freshmen have earned Big Sky Pitcher of the Week accolades -- Sara Stephenson once in 2016, Michaela Hood twice in 2017.

* Montana's offense is clicking along. The Grizzlies batted .311 in five games last weekend and scored 22 runs. Through 10 games Montana has scored 38 runs and has 23 extra-base hits. Compare that to last season, when the Grizzlies had 22 runs scored and just nine extra-base hits at this same point.

* Montana has been hurt this season by 18 errors, which have led to 17 unearned runs. And that might be the case most seasons.

After getting a feel for playing on dirt each spring, Montana goes back to the artificial surface of Grizzly Softball Field for all of its fall practices and games. The return to dirt each February is a first for the team in more than nine months.

Montana coach Melanie Meuchel would never trade in the artificial surface, not for all the benefits it provides throughout the year, but she also knows it then requires some break-in time each spring, as her team adjusts to a game that's just a little bit different with a dirt infield.

"There are so many perks with the turf. You're always going to get a good hop and pretty much always the same hop, so you get real comfortable with it," she said. "When you get on a dirt field, the ball plays just a little bit differently. We won't ever use it as an excuse, but it has shown a little bit."

There is also the newness factor. All four starting infielders -- Cami Sellers at first, Lexi Knauss at second, Kylie Becker at third and Maygen McGrath at shortstop -- are first-year players.

"There are factors other than the surface," said Meuchel. "Every single person is brand-new to their position, so there will be a comfort level that comes from continuing to play together and playing more and more at game speed."

* There are bad 1-9 records and then 1-9 records that are a bit deceiving. Montana's is more toward the latter. As detailed above, only twice have the Grizzlies lost handily this season. Most of the other losses have come down to extra innings or a final at-bat.

It's why Meuchel sounds upbeat and optimistic about this team going forward.

"I really like this team. A lot. They're hungry," said Meuchel. "I have a lot of trust in this group, because I feel like they believe and they want it so bad.

"We knew it would take some time and some growth with this team to establish who we are. So it's taking the good and learning from the bad, and then working on the areas we're not doing well."

* Last year only two players -- Delene Colburn at .363 and Ashlyn Lyons at .341 -- hit better than .300 and those two players accounted for more than 60 percent of Montana's extra-base hits.

It's only a small sample size, with 10 games played, but Maygen McGrath (.433), Jessica McAlister (.381), Lexi Knauss (.343) and Cami Sellers (.306) are all hitting better than .300. All four hit home runs last weekend and they've totaled 14 of the team's 17 doubles.

* Last season three players accounted for all of Montana's home runs. Colburn had nine, Lyons seven and McAlister one. Five players have already hit home runs this season.

* Knauss and Sellers both had five extra-base hits last weekend, with four doubles and a home run.

* After going 0 for 19 through the season's opening eight games, Anne Mari Petrino went 2 for 3 against New Mexico State and 2 for 4 against Texas State.

* Michaela Hood threw a complete game against New Mexico State, totaling 149 pitches and striking out a season-high eight.

* Lexi Knauss saw her eight-game hitting streak to open the season come to an end with a 0-for-4 line against New Mexico State. She responded with a pair of hits against Texas State. ... Knauss and Maygen McGrath lead the team with four multiple-hit games.

* Kylie Hayton has the team's longest active hitting streak of five. She had a nice performance at New Mexico State, going 5 for 12 (.417) with three runs scored.

* Starting all 10 games thus far: Knauss at second, Becker at third, McGrath at shortstop, Petrino in left, Hayton in center and Weisgram in right. Sellers has started nine of 10 games at first, McAlister eight games at catcher.

Upcoming: Montana will face North Dakota State, Stanford twice, Cal Poly and Northwestern next week at the Stanford Invitational.

Griz returning to California for Silicon Valley Classic

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kylie Becker

Delene Colburn

Kylie Hayton

Michaela Hood

Lexi Knauss

Ashlyn Lyons

Jessica McAlister

Maygen McGrath

Anne Mari Petrino

Cami Sellers

Sara Stephenson

Brooklyn Weisgram

University of Montana Athletics