Griz win twice, advance to Championship Saturday

Friday, May 14

Ogden, Utah

Noon

Montana

18-29

Northern Colorado

12-27

Northern Colorado

Montana

5/14/2021 10:10:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

By: Montana Sports Information

Their reward? Ice cream.

The Montana softball team picked up a pair of wins in elimination games on Friday on Day 2 of the Big Sky Conference Championship at Wildcat Softball Field in Ogden, Utah.

The Grizzlies knocked off Northern Colorado 7-6, then shut down Sacramento State 5-0 to advance to Championship Saturday.

One of just three teams still standing, Montana will face Southern Utah at 9:30 a.m. in another elimination game, with the winner advancing to face unbeaten Portland State.

Before that, a well-deserved stop for ice cream after winning two games on Friday without trailing and after allowing only two earned runs across 14 innings.

"They earned it. Absolutely," coach Melanie Meuchel said.

It's a team that's playing with a level of confidence perhaps not seen in the program since May 2017 on the same field, when Montana won that season's Big Sky tournament.

Tristin Achenbach as Michaela Hood. Maygen McGrath as Delene Colburn. Cami Sellers as Bethany Olea. New faces, same feeling. The Grizzlies are on a major roll.

"It doesn't matter whose number is getting called right now, whether it's stepping into a pinch-hitting role or into a position, everybody has a lot of confidence right now in themselves as well as in their teammates," said Meuchel, whose team has outhit its opponents 41-22 the last two days.

"We're just applying a lot of pressure. It's just grit and determination and belief."

And a lot of Achenbach, who has thrown four complete games over two days, 427 pitches, and seems to be getting … stronger?

"There is a lot of adrenaline going on," she said. "It helps that it's warm out and that my defense is making a lot of great plays behind me."

The numbers say it all. Over 27 innings, she has allowed eight earned runs while holding four opponents to seven extra-base hits and a batting average of .224.

She's recorded 20 strikeouts. The 19th, in the top of the sixth against the Hornets, gave her 389 for her career, making her the Montana leader, surpassing Michaela Hood, who was just as dominant, just as untouchable, at the 2017 tournament in Ogden when she earned MVP honors.

"I've been able to command my pitches, put them where I want them and been able to get the outcomes I want," Achenbach said.

Meuchel, after her team lost 3-1 to Southern Utah on Thursday, said her team was going to bring it on Friday. And the Grizzlies did, right from the start.

They built a 3-0 lead on Northern Colorado before the Bears had recorded an out.

While it was frustrating to leave the bases loaded in the first and second innings, and strand two more in the third, when the Grizzlies could have buried the Bears early, it set the tone for the day. There would be pressure. A lot of it, from up and down the lineup. And it would keep coming.

Jessica McAlister had a two-run double in the first, Sellers a two-run single in the fifth, and Montana took a 7-2 lead to the seventh.

The Grizzlies have had four errors through their first four games of the tournament. Three of those came in the top of the seventh, and the Bears capitalized with two additional base hits to pull within 7-6.

With two outs and the potential tying run at third, Achenbach ended the game when she froze a Bear in place for a strikeout-while-looking. There is nothing better for a game's final out.

There would be no such drama against the Hornets, who Achenbach held to three hits in Thursday's opener, a 6-3 win.

McAlister got Montana on the board in the first. The Grizzlies added three runs on three hits in the third, another on an RBI single by McGrath in the fifth.

All McGrath did on Friday was extend her hitting streak to 18 games, which matches Sellers' program record. McGrath is 8 for 13 through four games in Ogden.

Sacramento State generated just five hits this time around, all singles. The Hornets, who knocked top seed Weber State out of the tournament earlier on Friday, had multiple runners on base in just two of seven innings.

Achenbach ended the game on a strikeout. Again. Then ordered some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream while celebrating with her teammates.

It's not an impossible mission on Saturday: win three games, with little break between. But the schedule makes it difficult, as it should, for anyone to come out of the elimination bracket and win.

Get by Southern Utah and Montana would have to defeat Portland State. Then do it again.

"Tomorrow is going to be a tough day, but everyone wants it. Everyone expects to win. All we can do is try to win them all," said Achenbach. "It's going to take a lot from everyone, but that's what we want."

The big question is what will Achenbach have left? On Friday night, Meuchel had no answer. She wasn't being coy. All she wants to do is think about Southern Utah. Because that's really all that matters.

"That's our focus, not who we'd get on the backside," she said. "Who's in front of us is all we're focused on until we're done. We'll attack Southern Utah aggressively and be all in for that game."