Montana to play final Big Sky road series

The Montana softball team will play its final Big Sky Conference road series this weekend when it plays three games at Idaho State.

The Grizzlies (12-26, 4-8 BSC) and Bengals (7-20, 1-8 BSC) will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon, a single game on Sunday, also starting at noon.

The games will be played at Miller Ranch Stadium in Pocatello.

Montana will then be off until it hosts Weber State at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula on Friday and Saturday, May 7 and 8.

The six-team Big Sky Conference tournament will take place in Ogden, Utah, from May 13-15.

Coverage: This weekend's series will not have video streaming. Links to the radio broadcast and live stats can be found on the softball schedule page at GoGriz.com.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies saw their losing streak in Big Sky games reach eight with a pair of setbacks against Southern Utah on Saturday.

Montana picked up its first league win since sweeping its series at Portland State last month with a 6-5 come-from-behind win on Sunday.

Maygen McGrath hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 5-5, Lexi Knauss had a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

With four Big Sky series down and only two remaining, Montana is tied for fifth in the Big Sky standings with Portland State at 4-8.

The Grizzlies continue to sit in the middle of the Big Sky statistics -- fourth out of seven teams -- in both batting average (.289) and ERA (6.53).

At a glance (Idaho State): The Bengals picked up their first league win of the season on Friday, winning 3-2 in nine innings at Portland State. The Vikings won the other two games 8-0 and 8-4.

Idaho State hosts Boise State on Wednesday, just its fourth home game of the season.

The Bengals opened league with three loses at Weber State, then dropped three at home to Southern Utah before going 1-2 at Portland State.

Idaho State closes the regular season with a series at Sacramento State and three games at home against Northern Colorado.

If the season ended today, the Bengals, in last place in the seven-team league, would be the one team to miss the Big Sky tournament.

Idaho State is batting .272 and has a 7.88 ERA. ISU's ERA ranks 278th nationally out of 283 teams. Through nine games, its league opponents are averaging more than 8.3 runs per game.

Series notes:

* Montana leads the all-time series against Idaho State 9-8. The Grizzlies have gone 7-3 against the Bengals since 2017.

* This will be just the third series the teams have played in Pocatello. The teams have split their previous six games on Idaho State's home field, each in a sweep.

* The Bengals swept the series at home in 2016. The Grizzlies won all three games in 2018, holding Idaho State to three runs over three games.

* In the teams' most recent series, in 2019 in Missoula, Idaho State took two of three.

* Montana's Melanie Meuchel is 4-2 against Idaho State as a head coach. Second-year Idaho State coach Cristal Brown will be facing the Grizzlies for the first time.

Summary:

Will Sunday be a turning point for this Montana softball team? Only time will tell. But Sunday certainly felt different to everyone who was at Grizzly Softball Field.

These were the Grizzlies everyone has come to expect, has gotten behind, since the program formed and began playing in 2015. They were intentional, passionate, enthusiastic, fighters.

Coach Melanie Meuchel has said all along it was there. It revealed itself here and there but never fully. Until Sunday.

"We've felt close to it but I don't know if we've truly felt it in games," she said. "Even in the games we took at Portland State, we felt good about it but felt there was something a little bit more.

"We showed it on Sunday. Each and every player, staff member and fan could feel it. We had practice yesterday and it was great. We felt that same intent, that same focus, energy and belief.

"It's something we needed and something every single person in the program worked really hard to get. I felt like everybody brought it on Sunday, and we got the outcome we wanted with it as well."

After shutting out Carroll 4-0 and 8-0 in a midweek doubleheader, Montana got swept by Southern Utah on Saturday, 9-1 and 10-3.

The Thunderbirds scored consistently, in 10 of 14 innings on the day, as they knocked Tristin Achenbach out of Game 1, Allie Brock out of Game 2. Neither made it through four innings.

On Sunday Achenbach was a different pitcher. She would get out of bases-loaded jams in both the first and second innings, the final out both times coming by strikeout. She would have 12 in the game.

Southern Utah starter Tyler Denhart was in line for the win on Sunday when she was relieved after 5 2/3 innings, but Grace Owen in relief couldn't hold SUU's 5-2 lead.

McGrath tied it with a two-out, three-run shot in the sixth, and after Owen walked two batters to put runners at first and second with one out in the seventh, Knauss won it with a single to right-center.

Montana went from 10 hits in two games on Saturday to 11 in one game on Sunday, from four runs on Saturday to six on Sunday.

McGrath would go 4 for 10 for the three games, three of those hits going for extra bases. She also scored a team-high three runs.

Freshman Anna Toon went 4 for 5 to up her season batting average to .396, which would rank second in the Big Sky if she had enough at-bats to qualify.

"She does some very good things at the plate for us. She is a very good hitter. She puts the ball in play and gives herself and our team a chance," said Meuchel.

Montana now prepares to face Idaho State, which has dropped 13 of its last 14 games going into Wednesday's contest against Boise State.

Meuchel hadn't completed her scouting report on Wednesday morning so was unable to talk specifics about the Bengals.

But she knows this: If the team she saw play on Sunday shows up to play in Pocatello and beyond, she'll go to battle against anybody and feel like the Grizzlies will have a shot.

"It's a conference series that Griz Softball will still work to play Griz Softball," she said. "When we do that, we have a great chance.

"That will be our focus, who we are and what we're doing and what we can bring to the field."

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies struck out just twice in 75 at-bats over three games against the Thunderbirds. Montana's pitchers recorded 26 strikeouts.

* Tristin Achenbach struck out 12 batters in Sunday's win. It was her fifth time this season with 10 or more, the sixth time in her career.

* Achenbach has 137 strikeouts, the second-highest total in program history for a single season, behind the 178 of Michaela Hood of Montana's NCAA tournament season of 2017.

* Achenbach leads the Big Sky in strikeouts by a wide margin. The next-highest total is 61. She ranks 31st in the nation.

* Southern Utah's Brooke Brown had three home runs against Montana to take over the Big Sky lead with 12. Maygen McGrath hit her 10th on Sunday. She ranks third.

* McGrath ranks second in the Big Sky in hits (44), doubles (10) and total bases (84), third in RBIs (34), fourth in runs scored (30).

* McGrath's 10 home runs mark the sixth time in program history a player has hit 10 or more in a season. Delene Colburn did it three times, Lexie Brenneis and Sydney Stites once.

* McGrath's 22 home runs rank second in program history behind Colburn's 45. ... She leads Montana this season in multiple-hit games (13) and multiple-RBI games (nine).

* McGrath takes the team's longest active batting streak of eight into this weekend's series at Idaho State. She has hit safely in 16 of Montana's last 18 games.

* McKenna Tjaden had her 12-game hitting streak come to an end in Game 2 against Southern Utah. She still takes a 15-game reached-base streak into the series at Idaho State.

* Montana is 6-7 in true road games this season, a better record than the Grizzlies have at home (4-10) or neutral-site games (2-9).

* Cami Sellers hit a three-run home run in Game 2 on Saturday, McGrath a three-run home run in Game 3 on Sunday. Montana's last four home runs have been three-run shots or grand slams.

* Achenbach picked up career win No. 28, complete game No. 25 on Sunday. She ranks second to Michaela Hood (30 wins, 35 complete games) in both categories in program history.

* McGrath had her 30th career multiple-hit game on Sunday with a 2-for-4 performance. Knauss had her 20th in the same game, also going 2 for 4.

* McGrath hit in the No. 2 spot in the order on Sunday, Sellers the No. 3 spot. It was the first time this season they have hit in those spots. Toon batted clean-up for the second time this season.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Weber State continues to roll along at 9-0. The Wildcats have series remaining at Southern Utah, home against Portland State and at Montana.

* Despite losing on Sunday at Montana, Southern Utah sits in second place at 7-2, one game up on Sacramento State. SUU has home series against Weber State and Sacramento State remaining.

* Just one game separates Northern Colorado (5-7), Montana (4-8) and Portland State (4-8).

* Weekend series: Weber State at Southern Utah (Friday-Saturday), Sacramento State at Portland State (Friday-Saturday) and Montana at Idaho State (Saturday-Sunday). Northern Colorado has the off week.

Upcoming: Unless something changes, Montana will have 11 days off between wrapping up this weekend's series at Idaho State and the home series against Weber State on May 7-8.

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Players Mentioned

Tristin Achenbach

Lexie Brenneis

Allie Brock

Delene Colburn

Michaela Hood

Lexi Knauss

Maygen McGrath

Cami Sellers

Sydney Stites

McKenna Tjaden

Anna Toon

University of Montana Athletics