Griz heading to Razorback country

The Montana softball team will head east this week and play five games in three days at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.

The Grizzlies (5-5) will open and close the tournament against South Dakota State and play single games against Boston University, Arkansas and Marist.

The Razorbacks are ranked No. 23 in this week's USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll.

This will be the third of five early-season tournaments for the Grizzlies, who will travel to Riverside, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz., the next two weeks.

Montana opened its season going 4-1 at the Big Easy Classic in Metairie, La. The Grizzlies finished 1-4 last week at UNLV's Marucci Desert Classic in Las Vegas.

The schedule:

Friday, 9 a.m. (MT) -- vs. South Dakota State
Friday, 11:15 a.m. (MT) -- vs. Boston University
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. (MT) -- at Arkansas
Saturday, 6 p.m. (MT) -- vs. Marist
Sunday, 8:30 a.m. (MT) -- vs. South Dakota State

The field:

South Dakota State: The Jackrabbits have started the season 4-5, going 2-2 at Northern Iowa's indoor tournament to open the season, then 2-3 last weekend in Houston, Texas.

SDSU went 37-19 last season and advanced to the National Invitational Softball Championship for the second consecutive season. The Jackrabbits, with one first-place vote, were picked third in the Summit League preseason coaches' poll, coming in behind North Dakota State and South Dakota.

Boston University: The Terriers are off to a 9-1 start, their only loss a 3-2 setback to Eastern Kentucky last weekend in Rock Hill, S.C., on a two-run home run in the top of the seventh. They have outscored their opponents through 10 games by a score of 52-11.

BU went 37-20 last year and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in the last 11 seasons. The Terriers are a heavy favorite to win the Patriot League title, topping the preseason poll with 12 of 14 first-place votes.

Arkansas: The Razorbacks, who host tournaments the next two weekends, are 7-1 after going 4-1 at New Mexico State's tournament and 3-0 last weekend at Florida Gulf Coast's abbreviated tournament. Arkansas' lone loss was a 3-2 setback to Bradley in the second game of the season.

The Razorbacks went 38-20 last year and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the third straight season. They were picked to finish seventh out of 13 teams in the loaded SEC, which sent all 13 teams to last spring's NCAA tournament, the third straight year that happened.

Marist: The Red Foxes, who did not play on the season's opening weekend, are 3-1 after competing last weekend at Belmont's tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The team's lone loss came 1-0 to Wisconsin-Green Bay in its season opener.

Marist is coming off a 35-22 season that ended at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament. The Red Foxes, who had five of the 12 players on the preseason All-MAAC team, were picked second in the preseason poll behind Monmouth, which ended Marist's season last year in the league tournament.

Storylines:

A homecoming of sorts: Senior outfielder Anne Mari Petrino's dad, Paul, the current football coach at Idaho, had two stints on the football coaching staff at Arkansas.

He was the offensive coordinator and receivers coach for the 2008 and '09 seasons, and returned for the 2012 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Montana coach Melanie Meuchel's brother, Matt, is in his fourth year as an assistant coach at Arkansas after working as the head coach at Nevada for eight years. For the first four of those years, 2009-12, his sister was on his staff.

"It's a place where Anne Mari grew up, so she's going to be able to see some really close family friends of hers. I know she's excited about the trip, as am I," said Meuchel.

"I'll have my sister-in-law, my two nephews, my brother, and my parents will be there."

A Power 5 venue: This will be the first time Montana has played at an SEC venue and the first time Montana has faced an SEC opponent.

But Montana is no stranger to playing games on a Power 5 program's home field. This will be the fifth straight year that's happened.

The Grizzlies played at Arizona State's and Washington's tournaments in 2016 and returned to Washington in 2017 for the NCAA tournament.

Montana played in tournaments at Arizona and Oregon in 2018 and at Stanford last season.

"It's not only personally a fun trip for a couple of us, but it will be a good experience for our team and players to see an SEC school and facility and get that experience against some very good teams," said Meuchel.

A strong field: Montana will play five games this weekend against four teams that have started the season 23-8.

Boston University, Arkansas and Marist all have just one loss to date. Montana will be facing all three of those teams for the first time in program history.

Montana is 1-1 against South Dakota State, falling 10-3 to the Jackrabbits at Fresno State in 2015 and topping SDSU 6-5 on opening weekend in 2017 at UNI's dome tournament.

"We'll be facing some teams that had strong seasons last year and have gotten off to very strong starts," said Meuchel.

"We'll be facing teams we haven't seen and are very good programs in our sport. We'll be challenged but we have a team I believe we can compete with."

Montana goes 1-4 in Las Vegas: After opening the season 4-1 at the Big Easy Classic, the Grizzlies flipped that record last week at UNLV's Marucci Desert Classic.

Montana got shut out by the host Rebels, 8-0 and 2-0, the former in a five-inning no-hitter. The Grizzlies also lost twice to Utah Valley, 4-3 in eight innings and 4-2.

UNLV went 5-1 at the tournament to improve its record to 7-4. Utah Valley, with losses to Oregon and UNLV, is 8-2 under first-year coach Stacy May-Johnson.

"We faced some teams that are really hot right now, good programs that are taking steps forward," said Meuchel. "We were challenged to be good every single day.

"It was a weekend in which we were challenged pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game and could never let up. It made us stronger, and I think it will pay us back."

The five-inning no-hitter by UNLV was the fourth time Montana has been no-hit in program history. Nebraska did it in for six innings in 2015, Washington over five innings at the 2017 NCAA tournament, and Oregon for seven innings in 2018.

Montana concludes trip with a win: The Grizzlies concluded the Marucci Desert Classic with an eight-inning, walk-off win against Big Sky rival and preseason favorite Weber State.

The Grizzlies fell behind 2-0 in the top of the second but fought back to lead 3-2 after five. The Wildcats scored once in the top of the sixth to send the game to extras, Montana won it on a ground ball with a runner on third in the bottom of the eighth.

"I don't think any conference schools desire to play each other early in the season. I was really proud of the team's fight and battle," said Meuchel.

"To be able to end the weekend with a win by competing and playing hard was great, but also to kind of take a stance of this is who we are, this is what we want and this is who we are trying to be."

Freshman called upon, step up: Meuchel started all four of her freshmen against Weber State.

Jaxie Klucewich batted leadoff and played shortstop. She had a hit and scored a run. So did Kendall Curtis, who batted second and played second base.

Ashley Ward batted fourth as the designated player. She put the ball in play in the bottom of the fifth that put Montana up 3-2.

Julie Phelps started her 10th consecutive game in right field and got Montana on the board in the bottom of the second with an RBI double, the team's only extra-base hit of the tournament.

"I felt like we needed a little lift and felt that was the right lineup to go with at that time," said Meuchel. "It was exciting to watch them step up and play the game and have fun with what they were doing."

Montana notes:

* After erupting for 19 extra-base hits in five games at the Big Easy Classic -- eight doubles, 11 home runs -- Montana had just one at UNLV's tournament, Julie Phelps' double against Weber State.

* Montana held a pair of one-run leads against Utah Valley in what would be a 4-3 loss in eight innings. The Grizzlies went up 2-1 in the top of the fifth, 3-2 in the top of the eighth.

* In Friday night's 2-0 loss to UNLV, Michaela Hood allowed just two hits while striking out seven while pitching a complete game. She gave up a leadoff walk, followed by a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth for the game's only runs.

* Montana had two on with one out and the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the seventh in that game against the Rebels.

* Cami Sellers had a pair of two-hit games at the tournament and leads Montana in batting average at .370. She ranks third in the Big Sky.

* Montana, with just six errors through 10 games, ranks first in the Big Sky in team fielding (.978) and also ranks first in team ERA (2.48).

* The Grizzlies were limited to six or fewer hits in all five games at UNLV and batted .156. The team's batting average is at .204, which is tied with Southern Utah for last in the Big Sky.

* Tristin Achenbach (2.08) ranks third in the Big Sky in ERA, Michaela Hood (2.30) ranks fifth. Achenbach leads the Big Sky in strikeouts with 42 in 40 1/3 innings pitched.

* Kendall Curtis had a hit in Montana's last three games at UNLV and takes a three-game hitting streak to Arkansas.

* Cami Sellers, at first, Brooklyn Weisgram, in center, and Julie Phelps, in right, have started all 10 games to date in the same position.

* Montana will be seeking its first win over a ranked opponent when it faces Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. The Grizzlies dropped to 0-14 against ranked teams when they lost 2-1 to No. 18 Texas Tech at the Big Easy Classic.

Upcoming: Montana will travel to Southern California next week for UC Riverside's Amy S. Harrison Tournament. The Grizzlies will play four games against UCR, Nebraska-Omaha and Michigan State.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Kendall Curtis

Michaela Hood

Jaxie Klucewich

Anne Mari Petrino

Julie Phelps

Cami Sellers

Ashley Ward

Brooklyn Weisgram

University of Montana Athletics