Exhibition schedule opens Sunday against Carroll

The last time we saw the Montana softball team on the field was in early May, at the Big Sky Conference tournament in Sacramento.

And it was no way for the Grizzlies to go into the offseason.

The team that went 19-9 from the middle of March through back-to-back sweeps of Northern Colorado and Southern Utah to close out the regular season fell to those same Bears 1-0 to open the tournament.

A bounce-back win, 11-5 over Portland State, kept Montana alive, but the season ended soon thereafter, getting three-hit and struck out 11 times by Sacramento State and Hornets ace Savanna Corr.

Of the 10 players who started the game that ended the 2019 season, nine would be back for the 2020 campaign. And that chance for redemption started earlier this month, when fall practices opened.

Fans will get their first look at coach Melanie Meuchel's third team on Sunday -- already the sixth in program history -- when Montana hosts Carroll in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Grizzly Softball Field, the first of the team's eight fall exhibition games.

"When we ended our season, we didn't end it the way we wanted. We have a very competitive team with very high expectations," said Meuchel, who returned all but three players off last year's team and added four freshmen.

"The thing we kept talking about (after the season) is that we want to start at the point we ended last year. It's been very fun to watch where this team has started the year with the very first day of practice.

"Their mindset, their approach, their drive, their determination, it's all been something that's made me very proud. They are walking the talk right now. They are showing the maturity they gained last year and are applying it on the field."

The 2019 season was destined to start slowly, with 11 players, a majority of them in the program from its very first practice in the fall of 2014, having graduated out the previous spring.

Then came a winter that kept Montana off its field until mid-March. It all resulted in a 5-20 start to the season.

Then time and Grizzly Softball Field combined to work some magic. Montana opened its home schedule by taking two of three from Utah Valley, then swept Nevada.

There were home sweeps of Portland State, Carroll, Providence and Northern Colorado, then the road sweep of Southern Utah, when Montana's offense looked unstoppable, with 31 runs in three games.

Just three days after coming back from a 4-0 deficit to win 10-6 in Cedar City and claim the Big Sky tournament's No. 3 seed, the Grizzlies were held scoreless by Northern Colorado in an opening-round game.

Two days later came the season-ending loss to Sacramento State.

That team played last season in the moment and for its seniors, but all of the growing pains were also an investment in the future. And now that future has arrived, and the rewards of that investment's growth should be visible on Sunday.

"A lot of work we put in last year with a young team is really showing where it's paying off," said Meuchel. "We're excited to compete on Sunday as a team of 17 players against an opponent.

"It's an opponent we're very familiar with and always very excited to have in Missoula. It should be a fun Sunday."

Montana lost senior pitchers Colleen Driscoll and Maddy Stensby -- and their 47 combined career wins -- off last year's team but returns an experienced battery.

Jessica McAlister is back as the team's primary catcher, as are pitchers Michaela Hood and Tristin Achenbach.

The starting infield -- Cami Sellers at first, Lexi Knauss at second, Maygen McGrath at short, Kylie Becker at third -- returns as well.

Sellers was voted the Big Sky's Top Newcomer and second-team all-league in the spring after batting .374 and leading the conference in extra-base hits with 31.

Anne Mari Petrino, one of four seniors on this year's team, made 45 starts in left. Brooklyn Weisgram and Kylie Hayton accounted for all the starts in center.

Katie Pippel went from fall tryout to walk-on to making 33 starts in right as a freshman and finishing second to Sellers in batting average at .337.

Petrino, Hood and Hayton are all seniors, as is Morgan Johnson, who had a monster finish to 2019. She batted .406 over the season's final 11 games and hit all six of her home runs after April 15.

To that experienced crew Meuchel added four freshmen this month: outfielder Julie Phelps (Riverside, Calif.), infielders Kendall Curtis (Snohomish, Wash.) and Jaxie Klucewich (Eagle, Idaho) and pitcher Ashley Ward (Henderson, Nev.), her state's Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior.

Those four freshmen were charged with doing just one thing: keeping up, because these Grizzlies are not resetting. They have picked up from last season and moved forward.

"We told them when they came in that we'll definitely help them along and get them going, but we're running full speed," said Meuchel.

"It's an overwhelming process for any freshmen, but they've really stepped up. I'm excited how they've meshed with this team. They are as competitive as our returners, so they definitely fit our dynamic."

With two senior pitchers lost and only two returning, Ward will be given plenty of opportunity. She is left-handed and only 5-foot 4, but Ward backs down from no one.

"As I recruited her, you could see her competitive nature, you could see her skillset," said Meuchel. "She's finding her groove. She's had days, throwing against Division I hitters, when she's proven that she will definitely add to our pitching staff.

"She's competitive, really competitive, and that separates pitchers on the mound at this level."

Montana will play four games next weekend, against Providence, MSU Billings and North Idaho.

After a weekend off, the Grizzlies will close out their fall schedule with a doubleheader against Columbia Basin on Saturday, Oct. 12.

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Kylie Becker

Colleen Driscoll

Kylie Hayton

Michaela Hood

Morgan Johnson

Lexi Knauss

Jessica McAlister

Maygen McGrath

Anne Mari Petrino

Katie Pippel

Cami Sellers

Maddy Stensby

Brooklyn Weisgram

Related Videos