Griz lose twice on 10th-inning walk-offs

Friday, April 5

Sacramento, Calif.

5:30 PM (MT)

Montana

11-25, 1-4

Sacramento State

20-17, 4-3

Montana

Sacramento State

4/6/2019 4:52:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team dropped a pair of games at Sacramento State on Saturday, with both losses coming on walk-off home runs in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The Grizzlies fell 8-5 in the day's first game, a game picked up in the 10th inning after being suspended by darkness on Friday evening.

In the third game of the series, the Hornets won 6-4 to spoil a solid outing by Tristin Achenbach, who went the distance.

The results gave Sacramento State (21-17, 5-3 BSC), the Big Sky Conference preseason favorite, a series sweep over Montana (11-26, 1-5 BSC). The Hornets won the series opener on Friday 9-1.

Montana batted just .179 in the series and had five extra-base hits in 26 innings against the league's top pitching staff.

The continuation of Game 2 on Saturday afternoon, after it was suspended after nine innings on Friday, didn't take long to reach a resolution.

After Montana went down in order in the top of the 10th, Sacramento State strung together three straight one-out hits in the bottom half of the inning.

The third was a home run to left by Sydnee Strong off Michaela Hood, who pitched so well over the final innings on Friday evening. Hood dropped to 1-7 on the season with the loss.

The Hornets looked like they'd keep it going in the series finale, getting to Achenbach for four two-out runs on four hits in the bottom of the first to go up 4-0.

After Strong doubled to right-center to make it 4-0, Montana coach Melanie Meuchel paid Achenbach a long visit in the circle. Meuchel stuck with Achenbach, and the pitcher rewarded her coach's decision.

Over the next eight innings, Achenbach shut the Hornets out while allowing four singles.

That, plus some costly errors by Sacramento State, allowed the Grizzlies to claw their way back into the game.

Montana scored twice in the fourth, after the Grizzlies' first two batters reached on infield errors. Jessica McAlister scored on a throwing error to make it 4-1, Maygen McGrath scored on a Katie Pippel sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Pippel did it again in the sixth, doubling off the fence in center to score McAlister, who led off the inning with a single.

With pinch runner Brooklyn Weisgram at second for Pippel and one out, the freshman broke for third on a groundout. The throw from first hit Weisgram as she was sliding into third and rolled to the outfield, allowing her to score and tie the game at 4-4.

Neither team could generate a hit in the eighth or ninth, and Montana went down in order in the top of the 10th.

That set the stage for another walk-off.

With a runner on first and two outs in the bottom of the 10th, Krystal Aubert, the Big Sky leader in home runs, made it No. 10 on the season with a blast to center.

That gave the loss to Achenbach, who threw 155 pitches while dropping to 3-5 on the season.

Montana scored four runs despite having just five hits. Three of the runs were unearned due to Sacramento State errors.

One of those five hits belonged to Cami Sellers, who extended her hitting streak to 10 games. It marks the 10th time in program history a hitting streak by a Grizzly has reached double digits.

The program record is 17, set by Bethany Olea in 2017.

Montana will host Carroll in a doubleheader on Tuesday beginning at 3 p.m. at Grizzly Softball Field. Montana's Big Sky schedule will resume next weekend when Portland State visits Missoula.