Griz host Saints in midweek doubleheader

The Montana softball team will take a break from its Big Sky Conference schedule when it hosts Carroll on Wednesday afternoon in a doubleheader at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

Game 1 between the Grizzlies (9-24) and Saints (11-22) will start at 1 p.m.

The games come at a critical point in the season for Montana, which has dropped six straight league games to fall out of the top four in the Big Sky Conference standings.

The top four teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the Big Sky tournament in mid-May in Ogden, Utah.

After opening league with a road sweep of Portland State, the Grizzlies lost three at home to Sacramento State.

This past weekend Montana lost three games at Northern Colorado. The Grizzlies didn't hold a lead in any of the games in Greeley, falling 9-1 in five innings, 7-4 and 9-7.

Montana fell behind 8-2 after four innings in the finale before rallying. The Grizzlies scored twice in the sixth, three more times in the seventh and had the tying run on base when the game ended.

"We fell a little bit short of what we were out to get, but I felt like we settled the last few innings of the series," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "I'm hoping we can build off our last few innings."

Late March and April have typically been the part of the season when Montana has been able to get on a roll, sparked by playing at home, where the Grizzlies were 66-25 prior to this season, 16-3 in 2019.

Montana has gone an uncharacteristic 1-8 at Grizzly Softball Field this season and will take six straight losses on its home field into Wednesday's doubleheader.

The Grizzlies salvaged the final game of a three-game series against Seattle on Brooklyn Weisgram's walk-off hit on March 19. Since then Montana has gone 0-3 against Utah Valley and Sacramento State.

Montana has a big weekend home series coming up against surprising Southern Utah, which is sitting second in the standings. The Grizzlies close the regular season hosting Big Sky-leading Weber State.

"Anytime we can play in Missoula at Grizzly Softball Field is a plus for us. We're excited we get two midweek games and an opportunity to play together as a team," said Meuchel.

"I'm looking forward to our pitchers being able to face Carroll and for our hitters settling in and being themselves at the plate and having the opportunities they'll get this week."

Carroll is no stranger to Grizzly Softball Field. The teams played an annual spring doubleheader every season prior to last year's shortened campaign. They usually meet up in the fall as well.

The teams, which both began playing in 2015, have met 10 times in the spring, with Montana winning all 10 matchups, but they haven't all been lopsided.

The Grizzlies won 3-2 in April 2017, the season Montana went to the NCAA tournament. The last time they met in the spring, in 2019, the Grizzlies won 5-1 and 7-2.

Carroll is 11-22 overall, 6-12 in Cascade Collegiate Conference games this season.

The Saints will go into Wednesday's doubleheader on a three-game winning streak after taking the last three of a four-game series in Helena over the weekend against Bushnell, a school in Eugene, Ore.

After losing their opener against the Beacons, 8-2, the Saints put up 33 runs over the next three games, including a 17-2 win on Sunday in the finale.

"We respect what they have as a program and always look forward to our games," said Meuchel.

"I feel if we play the Griz way and be who we are and do what we're capable of doing, that will put us in a good place."

Montana has not held a lead in its last four games and has given up nine, nine, seven and nine runs in those losses, unusual for a team that historically ranks near the top of the Big Sky in ERA.

After three innings over the weekend, Montana trailed 5-0 in Game 1, 5-0 in Game 2 and 6-1 in Game 3. Every game turned into an uphill climb.

Northern Colorado batted .413 against Montana's pitchers in the series with 10 extra-base hits, including three triples.

Tristin Achenbach leads the Big Sky in strikeouts with 111, 52 more than any other pitcher in the league, but she ranks eighth in ERA at 4.84. Montana ranks fifth as a team at 6.82.

The Grizzlies had a 2.55 ERA in 2020's shortened season. Montana has had an ERA over 5.00 just once before, in 2016 (5.26).

The key? "Preparation early and then not letting one thing faze us early in the game," said Meuchel.

"Coming out and staying in attack mode and making quality pitches and giving ourselves a chance to keep small innings for our opponents."

Offensively Montana is led by the big-hitting Maygen McGrath, who connected for her ninth home run of the season over the weekend, tying her for second in the Big Sky.

She now has 21 for her career, second only to Delene Colburn (2015-18), who belted 45, in program history.

McGrath had a hit in each game at Northern Colorado and has hit safely in 11 of Montana's last 13 games.

In Greeley it was Kendall Curtis sparking the offense at the No. 2 spot in the order. She had two hits in all three games and finished the series 6 for 11 with three runs scored.

McKenna Tjaden extended her hitting streak to 10 games over the weekend. It's just the 11th time in program history someone has had a hitting streak of 10 or more games.

It's the longest hitting streak for Montana since Cami Sellers set the program record at 18 in 2019.

"Kendall and McKenna look very confident and very comfortable at the plate," said Meuchel.

"They are seeing the ball very well and are putting together consecutive complete at-bats and getting some outcomes for themselves and for our team. I'm excited to watch them continue."

This weekend will arrive the Big Sky's highest-scoring team in Southern Utah, which has posted 182 runs this season, 40 more than Montana in two fewer games played.

The Thunderbirds have hit 43 home runs, 18 more than any other Big Sky team. They rank 22nd in the nation at 1.38 home runs per game, 39th at 5.81 runs per game.

Montana has a road doubleheader at Idaho State remaining, then the season-ending series against Weber State, which is 6-0 in league after sweep Sacramento State last weekend on the road.

"There is still a chunk of our conference season left that we can answer back from," said Meuchel.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Delene Colburn

Kendall Curtis

Maygen McGrath

Cami Sellers

McKenna Tjaden

Brooklyn Weisgram

University of Montana Athletics