Griz host high-scoring Thunderbirds this weekend

Saturday, April 17

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

Southern Utah

4/16/2021 2:36:00 PM | Softball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team will return to Big Sky Conference action this weekend when it hosts Southern Utah at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (11-24, 3-6 BSC) and Thunderbirds (13-20, 5-1 BSC) will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m., a single game at noon on Sunday.

Montana will play a three-game series at Idaho State next week and wrap up its regular-season schedule with a home series against Big Sky-leading Weber State on May 7-8.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies snapped a six-game losing streak with a doubleheader sweep of Carroll on Wednesday afternoon at Grizzly Softball Field.

Montana won 4-0 and 8-0 in five innings, with Tristin Achenbach and Allie Brock both throwing one-hit shutouts.

Montana led 1-0 going into the bottom of the fourth in Game 2. Anna Toon hit a three-run home run in the fourth, Cami Sellers a walk-off grand slam in the fifth.

The Grizzlies have dropped their last six league games after opening their Big Sky schedule with a road sweep of Portland State.

Montana lost three times at home to Sacramento State two weekends ago, then traveled to Greeley last week and dropped three games to the Bears, giving up 25 runs.

The Grizzlies sit right in the middle, fourth out of seven teams, in the Big Sky in both hitting (.290) and team ERA (6.45).

Montana is in fifth place out of seven teams in the Big Sky standings. The top six will compete next month at the Big Sky tournament in Ogden, Utah.

At a glance (Southern Utah): The Thunderbirds, the Big Sky's highest-scoring team (5.8/g), are sitting in second place in the Big Sky at 5-1 after opening league with series against Idaho State and Portland State.

SUU, picked sixth in the preseason coaches' poll, has won eight of its last 13 games after starting the season 5-15.

Southern Utah outscored Idaho State 23-4 to sweep the Bengals in Pocatello two weeks ago. Last weekend the Thunderbirds took two of three at home from Portland State.

SUU has hit 44 home runs this season, 17 more than any other team in the Big Sky, and ranks 24th nationally at 1.33 per game.

Josey White, a transfer from Minnesota, leads the Big Sky in home runs with 11. She also leads the league in batting average at .402.

Southern Utah, which seven times this season has scored 10 or more runs, also leads the Big Sky in doubles (48) and extra-base hits (93).

The Thunderbirds, who lost 8-0 at BYU on Thursday, have a team ERA of 7.05.

Series notes:

* Montana leads the all-time series against Southern Utah 13-3, the best winning percentage (.813) the Grizzlies have against any league opponent.

* Montana has an eight-game winning streak against Southern Utah and has gone 4-2 against the Thunderbirds in Missoula.

* The teams will be playing their first games in Missoula since the 2017 season.

* Montana coach Melanie Meuchel is 6-0 against Southern Utah as a head coach.

* Southern Utah coach Don Don Williams is in her second season coaching the Thunderbirds. From 1998 to 2019 she was the coach at North Idaho College, where she won 661 games.

* SUU redshirt sophomore Reilly Williams, daughter of Don Don, played at Montana in 2019, at Augusta State last spring.

Summary:

Montana went into Wednesday's home doubleheader against Carroll carrying the load of a six-game losing streak. The Grizzlies lightened that burden with a dominating 4-0 and 8-0 sweep.

"It was two games that we did some things very well in," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "It felt good to be back. It felt good to get the wins out of it."

Montana used four Carroll errors in the opener and back-to-back doubles by Kendall Curtis and Maygen McGrath leading off the fourth to win Game 1 4-0.

Montana had just one run on three hits through three innings in Game 2 before the bats came to life.

The Grizzlies scored seven runs on six hits in the fourth and fifth innings, with Anna Toon and Cami Sellers producing all seven runs with home runs.

Tristin Achenbach was perfect through 5 2/3 in the opener, 17 up, 17 down, before giving up a line-drive single with two outs in the sixth. She finished with her fourth career shutout.

In Game 2, Allie Brock had her first career shutout, striking out a season-high 10 in the five-inning game.

Now comes Southern Utah, which had averaged 8.0 runs over its previous eight games before getting shut out on Thursday by BYU, 8-0.

The Thunderbirds, who have played in just three games this season when the run total between the two teams was fewer than eight, lead the Big Sky in slugging percentage (.513) by a wide margin.

"I have a lot of respect for what they are doing," said Meuchel. "They take a lot of pride in the offensive side of their game.

"They will swing it aggressively. We'll pitch to that and work to that and defend to it. Then we'll have our own at-bats."

Montana has five regulars hitting better than .300, highlighted by Maygen McGrath, who leads the team in batting average (.364), runs scored (27), hits (40), home runs (9) and RBIs (31).

She leads Montana in multiple-hit games (12), multiple RBI games (8), and has hit safely in 13 of the last 15 games.

One player batting below .300 might be the team's hottest hitter. McKenna Tjaden will take an 11-game hitting streak into the series this weekend. It's only the seventh time in program history someone has reached 11 games.

Leading Southern Utah will be a coach who is no stranger to Grizzly Softball Field. Don Don Williams brought her North Idaho team to Missoula most every autumn for exhibition games.

"I have respected Don Don for so long," said Meuchel. "She has always had very competitive teams that take a lot of pride in the offensive part of their game. It's what they are thriving on at this point. It will be a fun competition."

Game notes:

* Montana is 69-33 all-time at Grizzly Softball Field, 3-8 this season.

* Cami Sellers' walk-off home run on Wednesday gave Montana three grand slams for the season, the most in program history for a single season. Jessica McAlister hit a grand slam against Grand Canyon on Feb. 12, Kendall Curtis against Seattle on March 19.

* In 942 at-bats this season, Montana still has yet to hit a triple. The Grizzlies have 43 doubles, 27 home runs.

* Wednesday's shutouts were the first of the season for Montana. The Grizzlies have yet to blank a Division I opponent.

* Tristin Achenbach threw her 24th complete game against Carroll on Wednesday, Allie Brock her third.

* Achenbach's win on Wednesday was the 27th of her career, tying her with Colleen Driscoll for second place in program history. Michaela Hood owns the top mark of 30.

* Achenbach's 116 strikeouts rank 37th in the nation.

* Over the last three games, Jessica McAlister has gone 6 for 8. She ranks second behind McGrath in batting average at .357.

* Kendall Curtis has 11 hits the last eight games. She's had multiple hits in four of those games.

* Jaxie Klucewich has gone 4 for 9 the last three games since getting moved into the leadoff spot in the order.

Upcoming: Montana will play a three-game series at Idaho State next Saturday and Sunday.