Griz to face Hornets as Big Sky tournament opens

Thursday, May 13

Ogden, Utah

Noon

Montana

Sacramento State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

5/12/2021 3:45:00 PM | Softball

PDF Game Notes Tournament Bracket

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team will compete this week at the six-team, double-elimination Big Sky Conference Championship in Ogden, Utah. The tournament goes Thursday through Saturday.

The Grizzlies, the No. 6 seed, will face No. 3 Sacramento State at noon on Thursday in an opening-round game, following the game at 9:30 a.m. between No. 4 Northern Colorado and No. 5 Portland State.

The winner of the 9:30 a.m. game will face No. 1 Weber State at 2:30 p.m. The winner of the Montana-Sacramento State game will face No. 2 Southern Utah at 5 p.m.

There will be four games on Friday, followed by championship Saturday. The winner will advance to the NCAA tournament, which opens on Friday, May 21, at 16 four-team sites across the nation.

All games in Ogden will be played at Wildcat Softball Field and streamed on Pluto TV, channel 1050.

The field: Weber State, the tournament's No. 1 seed, ran away with the regular-season title, going 15-3 and winning all six of its series, with single losses to Southern Utah and Montana on the road and Portland State at home.

Southern Utah, picked sixth out of seven teams in the preseason coaches' poll, went 10-8 in league to earn the No. 2 seed.

Montana, Sacramento State, Northern Colorado and Portland State all finished 8-10 to tie for third. The Hornets earned the No. 3 seed by going 6-3 against the other three tied teams. Northern Colorado went 5-4, Portland State 4-5, Montana 3-6.

Idaho State, which won five of its last six Big Sky games to finish 6-12 in league, ended up in seventh place and missed the tournament.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies (16-28) used a five-game winning streak from April 18 to May 7 to move up the standings. Montana won its series opener against Weber State on Friday to position itself for a higher seed, but the Grizzlies dropped Games 2 and 3 to finish in a four-way tie for third.

At a glance (Sacramento State): The Hornets (14-25) were rolling in early April, 6-0 in league and atop the Big Sky standings. Sacramento State closed going just 2-10, with four series losses. That included a seven-game losing streak, with series sweeps at the hands of Weber State and Portland State.

Series notes:

* Sacramento State swept the teams' series in Missoula in early April, winning three close games by the scores of 2-1, 5-4 and 9-4. The finale was a one-run game going into the sixth inning.

* The three losses dropped Montana's record against Sacramento State to 4-18, by far the Grizzlies' lowest winning percentage against any other team in the Big Sky.

* Sacramento State is on a 10-game winning streak against Montana.

* The Grizzlies have gone 2-7 against the Hornets at home, 2-8 on the road and 0-3 when meeting up at a neutral site.

* The teams met in the Big Sky tournament in 2016, '18 and '19, with the Hornets winning all three times by a combined score of 25-9. Sacramento State ended Montana's season at the tournament in 2016 and '19.

Montana vs. the rest of the field:

No. 1 Weber State: Montana went 1-2 against the Wildcats last weekend in Missoula, winning 7-6 on a walk-off single by Anna Toon, then dropping games by scores of 10-2 and 11-5. The Grizzlies are 9-14 all-time against the Wildcats, 2-1 at the Big Sky tournament.

No. 2 Southern Utah: Montana went 1-2 against the Thunderbirds last month in Missoula, falling 9-1 and 10-3 before rallying to win the finale 6-5. The Grizzlies are 14-5 against Southern Utah. The teams have met just once in the postseason, a 10-6 Montana win in the opening round at the 2016 tournament.

No. 4 Northern Colorado: The Bears swept the Grizzlies in Greeley last month, scoring 25 runs in 9-1, 7-4 and 9-7 victories. Montana is 11-8 all-time against Northern Colorado. In their lone postseason meeting, in 2019 in Sacramento, UNC won 1-0 behind a four-hit complete game by Valerie Vidal.

No. 5 Portland State: Montana opened league the last weekend of March with a three-game road sweep of the Vikings, winning 2-1, 10-1 and 9-8. Two of freshman pitcher Allie Brock's four wins this season came in the series. The Grizzlies are 16-5 against the Vikings, 3-0 in Big Sky tournament games.

Montana at the Big Sky tournament: The Grizzlies, who are making their fifth consecutive postseason appearance, have a 7-6 record at the Big Sky tournament. They have gone 6-4 in three previous trips to Ogden for the tournament, with a championship in 2017.

Tournament notes:

* The Big Sky tournament was first held in 2013 and contested for seven consecutive seasons before the 2020 edition was canceled.

* Weber State missed the first two tournaments, in 2013 and '14, but the Wildcats have been a tough out ever since. They have gone 11-4 at the last five tournaments, with championships in 2015, '16 and '19.

* Five of the six teams in this year's field have won a tournament title: Weber State in 2015, '16, and '19, Southern Utah in 2014, Sacramento State in 2018, Portland State in 2013 and Montana in 2017. The only non-champion is Northern Colorado, which finished runner-up in both 2018 and '19.

* Sacramento State is the only Big Sky team to have now played in all eight tournaments.

* Montana, at 7-6, and Weber State, at 11-4, are the only two teams with winning records at the tournament.

Summary:

It's championship week, and it doesn't get any better or more meaningful than that.

"From the beginning of the year, you circle championship play," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "It feeds off what you've been through and it's also a whole new season, it's starting new. And it's here."

Montana's opening-round opponent is a familiar one, but that's always going to be the case in the Big Sky, where there are only seven softball-playing schools.

First up is Sacramento State, which traveled to Missoula in early April and pulled out three tight victories.

Marissa Bertuccio outdueled Tristin Achenbach in Game 1 as the Hornets scored a run in the top of the sixth and one in the top of the eighth to rally for a 2-1 extra-innings victory.

The Hornets scored twice in the second, twice in the third in Game 2 and held on for a 5-4 victory.

In Game 3, Sacramento State led 4-3 in the top of the sixth when Milan Machado-Buckley hit a decisive three-run pinch-hit home run as the Hornets won 9-4.

Bertuccio went the distance to pick up her second win of the series.

"We're excited to have Sac State. We feel like we played competitively and had opportunities to take a couple of games against them," said Meuchel.

Montana would go on to get swept at Northern Colorado the next weekend before winning seven of its next nine to pick up some momentum going into May.

That streak was capped by Friday's walk-off win over Weber State.

"I'm confident (going into the tournament) because of our team and the competitive nature of our team and our collective growth in 2021," said Meuchel.

"We continue to see excitement, fight, grit and the ability to know we have a chance to win any game any time we walk on the field."

Montana notes:

* Senior Cami Sellers was named first-team All-Big Sky on Tuesday. She was Montana's lone player to make first team. Sellers was voted second-team all-league in 2019 and the Big Sky's Top Newcomer.

* Montana's left side of the infield, junior shortstop Maygen McGrath and junior third baseman Kylie Becker, was voted second team, as was freshman right fielder Anna Toon, who is batting a team-best .420.

* Senior pitcher Tristin Achenbach, who leads the Big Sky in strikeouts by a wide margin, senior designated player Jessica McAlister and sophomore left fielder Jaxie Klucewich were named honorable mention.

* Maygen McGrath takes a 14-game hitting streak into the tournament. Only Cami Sellers, 18 games in 2019, and Bethany Olea, 17 in 2017, have had longer hitting streaks in program history.

* Montana has hit four grand slams this season. The Grizzlies had five grand slams through their first six years as a program.

* Anna Toon is batting .420 on the season. The program record, based on a minimum of 50 at-bats, is .416, which Bethany Olea hit in 2017. Olea hit .408 in 2016, Lexie Brenneis hit .400 in 2015. Those have been the only three .400 seasons in history.

* McGrath has an outside chance of reaching .400. She is at .392, her highest average since March 13.

* McGrath has 12 home runs, which matches her total from her freshman and sophomore seasons. Her 24 career home runs rank second in program history behind Delene Colburn's 45.

* Tristin Achenbach has been the pitcher of record in six of Montana's last seven games. Her 12 wins rank third in program history behind Michaela Hood's 18 in 2017 and Sara Stephenson's 14 in 2016.

* Achenbach leads the Big Sky in strikeouts with 160. She is 18 behind Michaela Hood's program record of 178 from 2017. Her 370 career strikeouts are 18 behind Hood's program record of 388.

* Only Delene Colburn, with 14 in 2017, has hit more home runs in a season than McGrath has at 12, a total that is tied with Colburn and Sydney Stites from 2016.

* Montana ranks third in the Big Sky in batting average at .305. The Grizzlies have batted better than .300 just once in program history, .326 in 2016.

* Montana has an ERA of 6.74, which ranks ahead of only Idaho State (7.26) in the Big Sky. The highest ERA in program history came in 2016, at 5.26.

* Tristin Achenbach ranks 43rd nationally in strikeouts at 160.

* Montana has used Becker-McGrath-Sellers-Toon-McAlister atop the batting order the last seven games. Since the lineup has been implemented, the Grizzlies are batting .397 and averaging more than seven runs per game.

* After going without a triple through the season's first 40 games, Montana has three in the last four games.

* Montana has struck out two or fewer times in 10 of the last 11 games.