Surging Grizzlies to face Big Sky leader

The Montana softball team will kick off the back half of its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when the Grizzlies travel to Ogden, Utah, for a three-game series at Weber State.

The series will match the team atop the Big Sky standings -- the Wildcats are 9-1 -- against the team holding the league's longest current winning streak -- the Grizzlies have won five straight.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2 p.m. The series will conclude with a game at noon on Saturday.

Montana will host Providence for a doubleheader on Monday at 2 p.m. at Grizzly Softball Field before playing its final two Big Sky series: home against Northern Colorado and on the road at Southern Utah.

The top six of the seven teams in the Big Sky will advance to the conference tournament, which will be held at Sacramento State from May 8-11.

Game notes:

* It's April and Montana is surging ... again. The Grizzlies have had a winning streak of at least five games every April since the program started playing in 2015. Montana is 48-25 in its history in the month of April.

* Montana has remarkably played 16 games the last four seasons on Weber State's home field. The Grizzlies played a pair of regular-season, three-game series in Ogden against the Wildcats in 2015 and '17.

Montana played four Big Sky tournament games at Wildcat Softball Field in 2016, three in 2017, when the Grizzlies won the tournament title, and three more last spring.

In all, Montana is 8-8 on Weber State's home field, 4-5 when matched up against the Wildcats.

The last time the two teams played at Wildcat Softball Field? Montana won 9-5 on May 13, 2017, and celebrated the resulting Big Sky tournament championship.

* Montana's five-game winning streak took place at Grizzly Softball Field. After getting swept at Sacramento State the weekend prior, the Grizzlies won three over Portland State last weekend, then picked up a doubleheader sweep of Carroll on Tuesday.

It's Montana's longest winning streak since winning six straight late last season.

* Weber State is 6-1 this season on its home field, with the Wildcats' only loss coming against Utah State. The Wildcats own a home win over Utah and won twice against Sacramento State in a weather-shortened series last month.

* For all of its success at home -- Montana is now 11-3 at Grizzly Softball Field this season -- Montana has struggled in nearly equal measure on the road. The Grizzlies are 1-11 this season in true road games, their only a win a victory at Santa Clara back on Feb. 22.

* Weber State, which has had two league games cancelled because of weather, won its first nine Big Sky games before falling at Idaho State on Saturday, 7-4 in nine innings. The Wildcats led that game 4-0 and had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

The Wildcats (17-18, 9-1 BSC) went 2-0 at Northern Colorado, 2-0 at home against Sacramento State and 3-0 at home against Southern Utah. They won the first two games of their series at Idaho State by scores of 5-0 and 9-1 before dropping the finale.

* Weber State has the league's best team batting average of .301 and has three of the Big Sky's top 10 individual hitters, with Takesha Saltern leading the team at .407.

* Weber State will have just one Big Sky series remaining after this weekend. The Wildcats have their bye in the schedule next week, then close the regular season at Portland State the first weekend of May.

* Weber State won the outright Big Sky regular-season title in 2016 and '17, and shared the title last season with Sacramento State. Montana won the tournament on the Wildcats' home field in 2017, Sacramento State did so last spring.

* The Wildcats were picked second in the preseason coaches' poll behind Sacramento State.

* Montana had to rally for victory in its last four wins. The Grizzlies trailed the Vikings 7-2 in the sixth inning on Saturday before coming back to win 11-7 with a nine-run sixth inning and trailed 3-0 in Sunday's series finale before winning 7-4.

Montana trailed Carroll 1-0 going into the bottom of the fifth in Game 1 on Tuesday and 2-1 entering the bottom of the fifth in Game 2.

* During its five-game winning streak, Montana has scored 27 runs in the fifth inning or later, highlighted by the nine-run sixth on Saturday against Portland State. It was the second-highest-scoring inning in program history behind the 10 scored in a 16-3 victory over Nevada last season.

* Montana entered last weekend batting .254 through the season's first 37 games, with 12 home runs. Then the Grizzlies' bats got rolling.

Montana is hitting .385 during its five-game winning streak, with eight home runs. That's raised the Grizzlies' season batting average to .269.

* Cami Sellers hit a pair of home runs in Montana's 9-1 victory over Portland State on Saturday, the first two-home-run game for the Grizzlies since Delene Colburn did it against North Dakota in 2016.

Maygen McGrath and Lexi Knauss also had home runs in that game, the latter a walk-off, three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth. The four home runs set a new single-game program record. The previous high of three had been done five times but not since February 2017.

* Montana hit four more home runs in its doubleheader sweep of Carroll on Tuesday.

Jessica McAlister had the third of her career in Game 1, Kylie Becker the first of her career in Game 2. Morgan Johnson had the first of her career as well in Game 2, in the fifth inning. In the sixth she did it again.

It was the first time a Grizzly has had a home run in consecutive at-bats since Colburn did it against North Dakota in 2016.

* Montana now ranks second in the Big Sky in home runs with 20, behind only Sacramento State's 31.

* The 2016 Montana team holds the program record for home runs in a season with 32. The Grizzlies hit 28 in both 2015 and '17. They had just 17 last season.

* Cami Sellers extended her hitting streak to 15 games during Montana's five-game home stand. That moved her past Ashlyn Lyons' 14-game hitting streak in 2016 and into second on the program record list. At the top: Bethany Olea's 17-game hitting streak in 2017.

Sellers is batting .421 during her hitting streak. Eleven (eight doubles, three home runs) of her 24 hits during the streak have gone for extra bases.

* Two players who have been somewhat overshadowed by Sellers: freshmen Kylie Becker and Katie Pippel.

Becker, who was batting .152 going into the recent home stand, went 8 for 13 against Portland State and Carroll, with four extra-base hits. She takes a five-game hitting streak to Ogden.

Pippel has started the team's last seven games and has taken advantage of the opportunity. She has at least one hit in each and takes a seven-game hitting streak to Weber State.

* In Montana's opener against Carroll on Tuesday, Tristin Achenbach struck out 16. It was both a program record, surpassing the 13 of Michaela Hood in 2017 and Maddy Stensby last season, and a Big Sky record. Sacramento State's Caitlin Brooks struck out 15 against North Dakota in 2015.

* It largely went unnoticed after Achenbach's dominance in Game 1 against Carroll, but Maddy Stensby struck out 11 in Game 2, the second-highest total of her career behind the 13 K's she had last season at Southern Utah.

* Montana is 11-0 this season when leading after six innings, 0-16 when trailing after six.

* Colleen Driscoll picked up the win in two of Montana's three victories over Portland State. She threw a complete game in Saturday's 9-1 series-opening victory and worked five innings of one-run relief in Sunday's 7-4 win in the series finale.

For that performance she was named the Big Sky Conference Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her career. Maygen McGrath earned Big Sky Player of the Week honors earlier this season.

* Montana's team ERA is now down to 4.37, the lowest it's been since Feb. 15. The Grizzlies rank third in the Big Sky behind Sacramento State (2.68) and Idaho State (4.17).

* Cami Sellers leads the Big Sky in extra-base hits with 22. She has a league-leading 17 doubles, one triple and now four home runs. She leads the Big Sky in total bases (81) and is tied for the league lead in hits with 50.

* Behind Weber State, at 9-1, in the Big Sky standings are three teams with five wins: Sacramento State (5-3), Idaho State (5-6) and Northern Colorado (5-6). Sacramento State plays a series at Northern Colorado this weekend.

* The two teams behind Montana (4-5) are Southern Utah (3-6) and Portland State (2-6). Wins and losses will be forthcoming for those teams. They meet this weekend in Portland. Idaho State has the bye in the schedule this weekend.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Kylie Becker

Delene Colburn

Colleen Driscoll

Michaela Hood

Morgan Johnson

Lexi Knauss

Ashlyn Lyons

Jessica McAlister

Maygen McGrath

Bethany Olea

Katie Pippel

Cami Sellers

Maddy Stensby

University of Montana Athletics