Montana splits games in El Paso

Friday, March 5

El Paso, Texas

10 AM

Montana

2-9

Arizona State

12-1

Arizona State

Montana

3/5/2021 7:01:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team split a pair of games on Friday as the Grizzlies opened play at the UTEP Orange and Blue Classic in El Paso, Texas.

Montana (3-9) fell to No. 11 Arizona State 17-5 before bouncing back with a 5-2 victory over the host Miners behind a 12-strikeout complete game from Tristin Achenbach.

In their opener, the Grizzlies hung with the Sun Devils through five innings, pulling within three runs, 8-5, on a three-run home run by Maygen McGrath, but Arizona State scored nine runs on seven hits, all of them going for extra bases, in the top of the sixth to pull away for good.

Julie Phelps had an RBI groundout in the second that made it 2-1, Kendall Curtis an RBI single in the third that made it 5-2.

Arizona State led 8-2 in the bottom of the fifth when McGrath hit her fifth home run of the season, the 17th of her career.

The five runs Montana scored matched the most allowed by Arizona State this season while opening 13-1, equaling the score put up by current No. 1 Oklahoma and BYU.

The Sun Devils had four consecutive home runs as part of their big sixth inning, plus two doubles and a triple.

Kylie Becker had two hits and scored twice for Montana, which used all four of its pitchers.

Achenbach got the start against Arizona State and threw 2 1/3 innings. She came back and got the start against UTEP as well and was dominating.

Her 12 strikeouts were the second most of her career, her most against a Division I opponent.

She allowed four hits and no runs through six innings before the Miners came up with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the seventh, as Achenbach was surpassing 200 pitches on the day.

Montana went up 3-0 in the third. Cami Sellers had a sacrifice fly, McGrath and Curtis both had RBI singles.

It remained 3-0 until Montana tacked on a pair of runs in the top of the sixth.

With two outs, Becker lifted a fly ball to left that was dropped for an error. Phelps scored from first on the play. Sellers followed with an RBI single to right that scored Becker.

That was more than enough for Achenbach to collect her 15th complete game of her career, her 23rd win.

Curtis went 3 for 3 in the win to up her batting average to .353. McGrath, who is now batting .457, went 2 for 4. Becker and Phelps both scored twice.

Montana will face Incarnate Word at 10 a.m. on Saturday, UTEP again at 3 p.m.