McGrath named Player of the Week

Montana junior shortstop Maygen McGrath, the league's top hitter, was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week on Wednesday following another big-number weekend, this one in El Paso, Texas.

McGrath, who owns the Big Sky's top batting average of .476, went 7 for 14 at the UTEP Orange and Blue Classic on Friday and Saturday. Three of her hits went for extra bases.

McGrath drove in seven and scored six runs as Montana (4-10) split four games against No. 11 Arizona State, UTEP and Incarnate Word.

She had at least one hit in every game in El Paso and will take a seven-game hitting streak into this week's games at College Station, Texas.

"Maygen has always been a great hitter. It's something she takes a lot of pride in," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "She's taken almost the next step to her hitting at this level."

Call it the Colburn Zone, the standard established by Delene Colburn, the expectation that every at-bat is going to result in a hit. The surprise came when the other team actually got her out.

Cami Sellers was in the Colburn Zone the back half of the 2019 season. McGrath is there now. She's had hits in 12 of Montana's 14 games. In seven of those 14 games, she's had multiple hits.

She leads the Big Sky in batting average and runs scored (17), is tied for first in doubles (4) and ranks second in hits (20), home runs (5), RBIs (19) and total bases (39).

"Every time she comes to the plate, there is so much confidence in everybody in what she can do," said Meuchel. "It's fun to watch her compete. She's in every at-bat, every pitch, and gives herself and her team a chance.

"She's a fun person to watch play the game. She is very solid defensively and offensively. Over the last couple of years, she has really understood her game and really developed with that."

McGrath opened her tour de force at UTEP with a three-run home run against the ranked Sun Devils, a shot to left on a full count in the fifth.

It was only the fifth home run a Montana player has hit against a ranked opponent in program history and one of only 10 allowed so far this season by Arizona State, which is off to a 16-1 start.

McGrath went 2 for 4 in Montana's 5-2 win over UTEP, 1 for 2 with a walk in the Grizzlies' 5-4 come-from-behind win over Incarnate Word.

In the team's 14-13 loss to UTEP on Saturday, McGrath went 3 for 5 with three RBIs and three runs scored.

She had an RBI double in the first, reached by error in the third, had an RBI single in the fourth, lined out to center in the fifth and had an RBI single in the seventh.

McGrath has an on-base percentage of .520, a slugging percentage of .929 and has just one more strikeout (6) than she has home runs (5).

"As a hitter, things are stacked against you a little bit," said Meuchel. "But all of her at-bats have had a very hard outcome, whether it's a hard hit or something that's hard for the other team to defend. She's in a very good spot right now."

McGrath, her bat and her teammates will travel this week to College Station for Texas A&M's Davis Diamond Classic.

The Grizzlies will get three games against Texas A&M (13-3), two against Louisiana Tech (4-8).

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Delene Colburn

Maygen McGrath

Cami Sellers

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