Home stand continues against Wolf Pack

The Montana softball team's nine-game home stand continues this week when it hosts Nevada in a three-game series at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (7-21) and Wolf Pack (17-9) will play single games at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, with the series finale scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The home stand concludes next weekend when Montana opens its Big Sky Conference schedule against Idaho State.

At a glance (Montana): After opening the season with 25 games over five weekends in either California or New Mexico, the Grizzlies made their 2019 home debut last weekend against Utah Valley.

Montana swept a doubleheader on Saturday, winning 5-4 on a walk-off double by Cami Sellers in the bottom of the seventh, then used a seven-run fourth inning to win 10-3 and make it two straight.

It was only Montana's second time this season winning back-to-back games. The other time came against Santa Clara and CSU Bakersfield at the Silicon Valley Classic.

In the series finale on Sunday, the Wolverines scored six times in the first to take a lead they would never give back. Utah Valley added two more in the second, four in the third on their way to a 12-8 win.

Montana scored five in the second and used Maddy Stensby's first career home run to pull within 12-8 in the fifth.

The Grizzlies had the potential tying run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth, when they loaded the bases with two outs, but a groundout to third ended the threat.

Four players hit .400 or better over the three-game series: Stensby (.500, 5 for 10), Brooklyn Weisgram (.455, 5 for 11), Jessica McAlister (.429, 3 for 7) and Cami Sellers (.400, 4 for 10).

Stensby and Weisgram both scored four times, Sellers drove in four as Montana finished with 11 extra-base hits, with seven doubles, three triples and Stensby's home run.

Michaela Hood picked up her first win of the season in the series opener, allowing one hit in 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Colleen Driscoll, who set down the first 13 Wolverines she faced.

The game ended three batters and six pitches into the bottom of the seventh. Lexi Knauss led off with a single to center, Weisgram sacrificed her to second, Sellers drove her in with a double to center.

Montana only scored three earned runs in Saturday's second game but used four Utah Valley errors to win 10-3, including the seven-run fourth that blew the game open.

Stensby had two of Montana's seven hits. Reilly Williams, pinch-hitting in the bottom of the fourth, drove in two with a double to left-center.

Tristin Achenbach picked up season win No. 2 after striking out four over 5 1/3 innings of work. Hood pitched in relief for the second straight game, going 1 2/3 innings while allowing one hit.

So effective as the starter in the series opener, Driscoll didn't make it out of the top of the first in Sunday's finale. She allowed five runs, Hood allowed five more in two innings of relief.

Achenbach pitched the final 4 2/3 innings and kept Utah Valley off the scoreboard in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Weisgram, Stensby and Kylie Hayton all had two-hit games, with Hayton doubling in the third, tripling in the fifth to finish with two RBIs, which was matched by Sellers. Stensby scored a career-high three runs.

At a glance (Nevada): The Wolf Pack, who opened their Mountain West Conference schedule last week going 2-1 at home against Utah State, have won four straight and six of their last seven, including Tuesday's home sweep of Marist, 8-2 and 4-2.

Nevada hasn't lost consecutive games since opening the season 1-3. The Wolf Pack are batting a healthy .294 and haven't been shut out in 22 games. They have a 2.79 ERA and have just 20 errors, less than one per game.

Junior second baseman Sierra Mello is batting .386 and has scored 24 runs, both team highs, freshman first baseman Dallas Millwood has a team-leading 26 RBIs, and sophomore pitcher Julia Jensen is 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA while freshman pitcher Kendall Fritz has 70 strikeouts in 58 2/3 innings worked.

"They've caught their stride a little bit," said coach Melanie Meuchel, who spent seven seasons (2006-12) as an assistant coach at Nevada. "They are doing all aspects pretty well and just kind of clicking on all cylinders."

Nevada's program began playing in 2003, under coach Michelle Gardner. One of her assistant coaches was Matt Meuchel, the brother of Montana's current coach. Melanie Meuchel joined the staff as well prior to the 2006 season after one season as a GA at Oklahoma.

Gardner left after the 2008 season. Matt Meuchel was elevated to head coach, with his sister remaining on as an assistant. She would continue in that role until 2012, when she returned to Montana.

Meuchel was the head coach at Nevada through 2016, when he left for an assistant job at Arkansas. Josh Taylor, an assistant under Meuchel who is in the school's hall of fame for his time as a Wolf Pack baseball player, took over and is in his third season.

"I take a lot of pride in that program," said Meuchel. "I was very fortunate to be a part of some good things there. I spent some great years at Nevada. I always cheer for them to be successful, except when they're playing us."

Nevada, with 10 more wins than Montana, has the advantage in record. Cross-checking common opponents offers a little more insight.

Both teams opened their season with a victory over Santa Clara, but Nevada then lost its second game to Big Sky Conference favorite Sacramento State 9-0, part of three consecutive shutout losses in a 1-3 start that probably feels to Nevada like it was a long, long time ago.

Nevada swept two games from California Baptist, 6-2 and 10-4, a team Montana lost to 10-1. Last week the Wolf Pack took two of three from Utah State, the series concluding with an 11-2 win. Montana lost to the Aggies 11-1.

Series history: The teams have split their four previous meetings. Nevada traveled to Missoula in 2016 and took two of three against Montana at Grizzly Softball Field.

The teams met last March at the Red Desert Classic in St. George, Utah, and Montana rolled to a 16-3 victory against four Nevada pitchers. It was the second-most runs ever scored by the Grizzlies. Their 19 hits rank third all-time. Their 10-run fourth was the highest-scoring inning in program history.

Game notes:

* With its series victory over Utah Valley last weekend, Montana improved to 52-23 at Grizzly Softball Field.

* Maddy Stensby's home run on Sunday against Utah Valley ended a streak of 10 straight games without for Montana.

* All seven of Montana's victories this season have come when the Grizzlies scored first. They are 7-5 when scoring first, 0-16 when the opponent scores first.

* This week's series was possible because both teams had a bye from their conference schedules.

* The Big Sky Conference schedule opens this week for the other six teams in the league. First-place and preseason favorite Sacramento State (15-12) hosts last-place Southern Utah (2-16), Idaho State (9-16) hosts Portland State (9-15), and Northern Colorado (5-23) hosts Weber State (7-16).

* Montana opens league at home next weekend against Idaho State. The Bengals played their first home games of the season on Tuesday and swept Utah Valley, 5-0 and 8-6, in Pocatello.

* Cami Sellers leads the Big Sky in doubles with 10. ... Jessica McAlister, at .348, would rank seventh in the Big Sky in batting average but is four at-bats short of meeting the minimum. ... Montana ranks last in the league in fielding (.943), a statistic the Grizzlies led the Big Sky in the last two years.

* Montana's two triples on Sunday, by the Kylies (Becker and Hayton), matched the program record for triples in a game.

* Brooklyn Weisgram takes the team's longest current hitting streak of four into Thursday's series opener. Maddy Stensby owns the top current streak of reaching base safely at 11.

* Since moving up to the No. 2 spot in the batting order nine games ago, Weisgram is batting .393, with hits in eight of those nine games.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Colleen Driscoll

Kylie Hayton

Michaela Hood

Lexi Knauss

Jessica McAlister

Cami Sellers

Maddy Stensby

Brooklyn Weisgram

Reilly Williams

University of Montana Athletics