Montana opens league at Portland State

Saturday, March 27

Hillsboro, Ore.

2 PM (MT)

Montana

Portland State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

3/24/2021 5:57:00 PM | Softball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team will open its six-weekend Big Sky Conference schedule this week when it plays a three-game series at Portland State.

The Grizzlies (6-18) and Vikings (3-14) will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. (MT), a single game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. (MT).

The games will be played on Field 4 of the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex in Hillsboro.

Montana also will have road series at Northern Colorado and Idaho State. The Grizzlies will face Sacramento State, Southern Utah and Big Sky favorite Weber State at home.

Montana will have weekday doubleheaders against both Providence and Carroll in April.

Coverage: All three games this weekend at Portland State will have coverage through Pluto TV, channel 1051.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies enter league with a record of 6-18 after going 1-5 last week at the Montana Classic in Missoula. Montana went 1-2 against Seattle and got swept by Utah Valley.

The Grizzlies are hitting .279, which ranks third in the Big Sky. The team's 7.31 ERA ranks fifth in the league, 258th nationally out of 276 Division I teams.

Opponents are batting .350 against Montana and have 105 extra-base hits to the Grizzlies' 41.

At a glance (Portland State): The Vikings dropped to 3-14 on the season with a pair of one-run home losses to New Mexico State on Tuesday.

Eight of Portland State's 14 losses have come against ranked opponents, Tuesday's came against a team that has won 12 of its last 15 games.

The Vikings have just one win this season against a Division I opponent, a 5-4 victory at Grand Canyon, a team Montana split with. PSU's other two wins came at home against Simpson University.

Portland State was 6-18 last spring when the season was canceled. The Vikings were picked fourth in this year's Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, one spot behind Montana.

PSU has a .243 team batting average and ranks 255th in scoring at just 2.2 runs per game. The team's ERA of 8.46 ranks last in the Big Sky, 265th nationally.

Series notes:

* Montana has gone 13-5 against Portland State in its history and has won the last five games.

* The teams have played just six of those 18 games in Portland, three-game series in 2015 and '17, with each team winning three times. Portland State won two of three in 2015, Montana two of three in 2017.

* The teams' most recent meeting came on May 9, 2019, at the Big Sky tournament in Sacramento. Montana rallied from 1-0 and 4-2 deficits to win 11-5, with Katie Pippel driving in four.

Summary:

After missing the entirety of the Big Sky Conference schedule last season, Montana on Saturday will play its first regular-season league game since winning 10-6 at Southern Utah on May 5, 2019.

"We didn't have it last year. I think the players missed it. They are looking forward to it," said coach Melanie Meuchel.

"One thing we always talk about is the Big Sky Conference and the damage we can do. The goal is to win every series and be the last person standing."

First up will be a Portland State team that has just one Division I win and a 3-14 record, but records, good or bad, can always be deceptive at this time of year based on scheduling.

Eight of those losses have come against ranked opponents. Tuesday's doubleheader sweep at the hands of New Mexico State, both one-run games, came against a red-hot team.

"I've always had respect for Portland State and what their staff does with them. They will be a competitive team that will never go away," said Meuchel.

"When you go into conference play, you can throw out the records and it will be a battle from Pitch 1. We know that feeling and how competitive each series is and how fun it is to be in those battles."

Montana will go into the series with six wins, the fewest for the program heading into league since 2015, when the Grizzlies came out of pre-league tournament play with four victories.

The season's first home games have traditionally been the point in the schedule when the Grizzlies start to get on a roll. That wasn't the case last weekend when they went 1-5 at the Montana Classic.

The Grizzlies got outscored in six games 39-16 and put up three or fewer runs in five of the six games. Seattle and Utah Valley had eight home runs and 20 extra-base hits, the Grizzlies one and 10.

"We didn't win as many games this past weekend but I feel like our team continues to push forward and compete and bring the excitement and effort, and that gives us opportunities every time," said Meuchel.

"We'll continue to try to find areas where we can get rid of that one big inning or punch through with runners on."

Montana ranks third in the Big Sky in batting average, at .279, and is in the middle of the pack in runs scored (4.2/g).

Maygen McGrath leads the way at .378. Cami Sellers is hitting .338.

"Our team loves to hit, enjoys hitting every time it gets in the box," said Meuchel. "We need to continue to grind and be present in every at-bat.

"I think we've put too much pressure on ourselves, about getting it done right now, kind of that feeling. So it becomes a focus on where we are in that at-bat instead of the full outcome."

Montana had an ERA in six home games last week of 5.95, which actually dropped the team's season ERA down to 7.31.

That's still two runs more than the highest ERA in program history of 5.26 in 2016. Over the last four years the team had ERAs of 3.09, 3.08, 4.15 and 2.55, so something above seven is new territory.

"We're continuing to try to find consistency," Meuchel said. "We'll have great outings for a couple of innings or one game and feel like we take strides and then there are times we take a step back.

"We have to have consistency of dominating the zone and dominating the hitters."

Montana has made some spectacular defensive plays this season, particularly in the outfield by players how love to hunt down would-be base hits.

The Grizzlies rank sixth out of seven teams in the Big Sky in fielding percentage at .949, but it's a small margin -- less than two-hundredths -- between Montana and top-ranked Northern Colorado.

"They give us a chance every time we go out there," said Meuchel. "If we can continue to pitch to our hitters and rely on our defense, I think that will kind of ease (the pitching) side of the ball."

Game notes:

* Montana is 3-5 in true road games this season, with wins at Grand Canyon, Dixie State and UTEP. Portland State is 2-2 at home, with two wins over Simpson, two losses to New Mexico State.

* Utah Valley became the first team to sweep Montana in a three-game series at Grizzly Softball Field when the Wolverines won 12-0, 8-3 and 5-2 in Missoula on Saturday and Sunday.

* Tristin Achenbach struck out 10 in Montana's 3-2 home loss to Seattle on Thursday. It was her third game this season with 10 or more strikeouts, the fourth of her career.

* Achenbach ranks first in the Big Sky, 21st nationally with 90 strikeouts. She had 48 as a freshman, 86 as a sophomore, 76 in last year's shortened season.

* Montana's only home run on its six-game home stand was Kendall Curtis's grand slam against Seattle in the bottom of the first in Game 3 of that series.

* It was Montana's second grand slam of the season (Jessica McAlister, vs. Grand Canyon, Feb. 12), the seventh in program history.

* Maygen McGrath hit safely in the final four games of the Montana Classic and takes a team-leading four-game hitting streak into this weekend's series.

* McGrath leads Montana in both multiple-hit games (nine) and multiple-RBI games (six).

* Tristin Achenbach threw three complete games at the Montana Classic, striking out 20 over 21 innings.

* Lexi Knauss went 2 for 4 on Sunday against Utah Valley. It was her first multiple-hit game of the season, the 18th of her career.

* Maygen McGrath snapped a season-high three-game hitless streak by going 2 for 3 in Game 3 against Seattle. She had a hit in all three games against Utah Valley.

* McKenna Tjaden has nine games with multiple hits in her career. Two of them came last week at the Montana Classic.

* Brooklyn Weisgram's walk-off hit in Friday's 7-6 win over Seattle was the first for Montana since Cami Sellers did it at home against Northern Colorado in April 2019.

* Elise Ontiveros went 2 for 3 in Game 3 against Seattle. It was the first multiple-hit game of her career.

* Kelly Sweyer had career hit No. 1 in Game 2 against Utah Valley, a double. She added a single in Game 3.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* At 24, Montana has played more games so far this season than any other Big Sky team.

* Preseason favorite Weber State takes the league's best winning percentage into conference play. The Wildcats are 8-11.

* Idaho State (6-10) sits in second, Southern Utah (7-15) in third.

* Weekend series: Montana at Portland State, Idaho State at Weber State, Northern Colorado at Sacramento State.

* Southern Utah has the open weekend. The Thunderbirds, the Big Sky's highest-scoring team, will play Boise State and BYU on Saturday in Provo, Utah.

* Idaho State (.310) has the Big Sky's top batting average, Weber State (4.47) the best ERA. The Wildcats are the only league team with an ERA below 5.0.

Upcoming: Montana will host Sacramento State for a three-game series on Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, then turn around and host Providence in a doubleheader on Monday, April 5.