First Big Sky series is here

Saturday, March 30

Missoula, Mont.

1:00 PM

Montana

Idaho State

3/26/2019 6:10:00 PM | Softball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team, winner of three straight and five of six, will conclude a nine-game home stand this weekend with its first Big Sky Conference series of the season.

Montana will host Idaho State on Saturday and Sunday, with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m., followed by a single game on Sunday, also at 1 p.m.

Coverage: All three games against Idaho State will be available on Pluto TV (channel 237) and WatchBigSky.com. Saturday's doubleheader will have additional coverage on SWX.

At a glance (Montana): With seven softball-playing schools in the Big Sky, one team will be off each week during league while the other six square off. That was the case for the Grizzlies last week as conference games got underway for everyone else.

Nevada was also off from Mountain West Conference games, which led to a series of convenience for the two teams at Grizzly Softball Field, a three-game series swept by Montana with three one-run wins between Thursday and Saturday.

Montana rallied back from a 4-2 deficit to win the opener on Thursday 5-4. On Friday, the Grizzlies came back after trailing 2-0 and 5-4 to win 6-5 on a walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh by Lexi Knauss. Montana won the series finale on Saturday 4-3 on a game-ending wild pitch.

The series came after Montana opened its home schedule the weekend prior by taking two of three against Utah Valley.

Montana hit a robust .345 in its three-game sweep of the Wolf Pack, with nine extra-base hits, while the four members of the pitching staff all made appearances and finished the series with an ERA of 2.33, less than half of what it had been for the season to that point (4.85).

Series notes:

* Montana had been outscored 34-6 in the first inning through its first 28 games of the season. The Grizzlies more than doubled that total against Nevada, scoring first-inning runs in each of the games, eight in all.

* Montana had nine extra-base hits against Nevada, eight doubles and a Brooklyn Weisgram home run, to give the Grizzlies 65 extra-base hits for the season. Montana had 63 all of last season, and the team still has a minimum of 22 games left to be played this spring (weather permitting).

* The 3-0 sweep gives Montana a 5-1 record this season at Grizzly Softball Field and makes the Grizzlies 55-23 all-time on their home field.

* Kylie Hayton went 5 for 8 (.625) in the series, with two-hit games on Thursday and Saturday. She also went 2 for 4 in the final game of the series against Utah Valley, giving her a four-game hitting streak and multiple-hits in three of the last four games.

* Anne Mari Petrino also hit better than .500 against Nevada, going 4 for 7 (.571), a limited number of at-bats that comes with being the No. 9 hitter, in addition to being pinch-hit for on one occasion.

* Petrino's four-hit game on Friday was the first of her career and the first for Montana since Delene Colburn went 4 for 4 against North Dakota in May at the Big Sky Conference tournament in Ogden. The four hits match the most by a Big Sky player this season.

* Tristin Achenbach pitched 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief against Nevada on Thursday. That came after ending her previous appearance, the finale against Utah Valley, with 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

She started Saturday's game against Nevada and extended her streak into the second inning and to a career-best 11 1/3 before surrendering a run.

* Maygen McGrath went 3 for 4 against Ball State back on Feb. 24, at Santa Clara and San Jose State's co-hosted tournament. At the end of the game her batting average sat at .426. She would have just four hits over the next 13 games as her average dropped to .296.

She rebounded in a big way against Nevada, going 5 for 10, with four extra-base hits, all doubles, while driving in two and scoring three runs. Her average is up to .319.

* In the opener against Nevada, Montana trailed 4-2 after four innings. Up to that point, the Grizzlies had been 0-19 this season when trailing after four. Make it 1-19 after Montana scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth, the game-winning run scoring on a pinch-hit single by Morgan Johnson.

* On Friday, Nevada jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a home run. Up to that point Montana had been 0-16 this season when the opponent scored first. Make it 1-16 after the Grizzlies scored four in the first, tied it 5-5 in the sixth, then won it 6-5 in the seventh on Knauss's walk-off.

* Montana's 13 hits in Friday's walk-off win were a season high and the sixth time this season with 10 or more.

* Tristin Achenbach, Colleen Driscoll and Maddy Stensby each picked up a win last weekend, all coming in relief, which isn't a surprise considering two of the games ended in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the seventh and the opener had the winning runs scored in the bottom of the fifth.

* Driscoll's win last week gave her 22 for her career (22-23). That total ranks second in program history behind Michaela Hood's 26.

* Brooklyn Weisgram's home run on Friday was Montana's 11th of the season, the first of those to come in the first inning. Speaking of home runs, more than half (6 of 11) have come on two-strike counts.

* Cami Sellers and Kylie Hayton, both at four games, take the team's longest active hitting streaks into the series against Idaho State. Brooklyn Weisgram has reached base safely in seven consecutive games.

* Cami Sellers is 9 for 22 (.409) through the first six games of Montana's home stand.

* Two of Montana's six freshmen, Katie Pippel and McKenna Tjaden, have yet to make their Grizzly Softball Field debuts.

Freshman Reilly Williams made her first home appearance on Saturday, but it was a short one. She was at the plate as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh when a wild pitch scored Cami Sellers from third base for the walk-off win.

* In 12 games since moving up the batting order to No. 2 behind leadoff Lexi Knauss -- she had been batting in the 6, 7, 8 and 9 spots -- Brooklyn Weisgram is 13 for 37 (.351).

* The only every-game starters at their positions this season have been Montana's middle infielders, Lexi Knauss at second, Maygen McGrath at short.

* Montana has three of the Big Sky's four leaders in doubles. Cami Sellers ranks first with 12, Maygen McGrath is tied for second with nine, and Lexi Knauss is fourth with eight.

At a glance (Idaho State): The Bengals (11-16, 2-0 BSC) will take a four-game winning streak into their series at Montana and a shared spot atop the Big Sky standings with Weber State after taking two games in Pocatello last weekend from Portland State, 2-1 in eight innings and 7-6.

The final game of the series was rained out.

Those wins came after a weekday sweep of Utah Valley, which was coming off a 12-8 victory in Missoula two days prior. The Bengals defeated the Wolverines 5-0 and 8-6.

For that four-win week, junior outfielder Emma Bordenkecher was named the Big Sky Player of the Week and freshman Autumn Pease was named the Pitcher of the Week.

Bordenkecher hit a ridiculous .727 in the four games with five extra-base hits and nine RBIs. She leads the Big Sky in RBIs (24), is tied for second in home runs (6) and ranks third in batting average (.369).

She went 4 for 4 with five RBIs in ISU's 7-6 victory over Portland State on Saturday, the most RBIs by a Big Sky player this season.

Idaho State was picked for a sixth-place finish out of seven teams in the Big Sky this season. Bordenkecher has helped turn the Bengals into the league's early surprise team, as has Pease, a freshman from Murrieta, Calif.

She has a 6-2 record, the second-most wins in the league, and a 2.66 ERA that ranks fourth. Teams are batting just .226 against her.

Against common opponents with Montana this season, the Bengals lost 7-4 to Northwestern, defeated UC Davis 3-2 and swept Utah Valley. The Grizzlies lost 4-0 to Northwestern, lost twice to UC Davis, 2-1 and 10-4, and took two of three against Utah Valley.

Idaho State went 13-34 last season and missed the Big Sky tournament for the first time after going 8-13 in league. Coach Candi Letts is in her fourth season. She has previous head-coaching experience at Farleigh Dickinson, Utah State, Mississippi and Colorado State.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series against Idaho State 8-6 and has won six of the teams' last seven meetings, including a series sweep last spring at Pocatello. The teams have split their six games in Missoula, with the Bengals winning two of three in 2015, the Grizzlies two of three in 2017.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Idaho State and Weber State sit atop the league standings at 2-0. The Bengals won two last weekend at home over Portland State. The Wildcats went on the road and won 6-4 and 6-1 at Northern Colorado. The final game of that series was rained out as well.

* Sacramento State is 2-1. After rolling to a doubleheader sweep at home of Southern Utah on Friday, 9-3 and 9-1, the Hornets dropped the third game 4-2 despite allowing just four hits. All four SUU runs, which came in the second and third innings, were unearned after two costly Sacramento State errors.

* In league games this week, Sacramento State plays an important series at Weber State. The two teams tied for the regular-season title last spring. It matches the Big Sky's top hitting team (WSU) against far and away the league's top pitching team (SAC).

* Northern Colorado plays at Portland State this weekend, while Southern Utah is the team that is off. The Thunderbirds get a midweek home doubleheader against UMKC before hosting BYU next Tuesday.

Upcoming: Montana will play its first Big Sky road series next week, at Sacramento State. The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday, and single game on Saturday. The Grizzlies will turn around and host Carroll in a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 9.