Wildcats rally, take series finale

Saturday, May 8

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

16-28, 8-10

Weber State

25-17, 15-3

Weber State

Montana

5/8/2021 5:28:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

There is a reason Weber State hasn't lost a Big Sky Conference series in more than three years.

Trailing 4-0 going into the third inning on Saturday at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula and facing a team fueled by the emotions of Senior Day, the Wildcats out-hit Montana 16-4 over the final five innings and rallied for an 11-5 victory to win the series, their 13th consecutive.

Weber State (25-17, 15-3 BSC) won Game 2 on Friday 10-2 after losing the opener 7-6.

The loss dropped Montana (16-28, 8-10 BSC) into a four-way tie for third place in the final regular-season standings and into the No. 6 seed at next week's six-team tournament at Ogden, Utah.

Montana will open with No. 3 Sacramento State at noon on Thursday. The winner will face No. 2 Southern Utah at 5 p.m.

The Hornets (14-25, 8-10 BSC) swept the Grizzlies in Missoula in early April, winning 2-1, 5-4 and 9-4 but have gone just 2-10 since.

With the results from the other series on Saturday, a win by Montana would have given the Grizzlies the No. 3 seed, and it looked promising early.

Montana got to Weber State starter Kate Donaldson for four runs on four hits in the bottom of the first.

After Kylie Becker led off the inning with a single, Maygen McGrath hit an opposite-field home run to right-center, her 12th of the season, which is tied for second in program history and two off Delene Colburn's record of 14 from 2017.

The home run also gave McGrath a 14-game hitting streak. Only Cami Sellers (18 in 2019) and Bethany Olea (17 in 2017) have had longer streaks in program history.

Montana later made it 4-0 in the first on a McKenna Tjaden RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Lexi Knauss.

After Tristin Achenbach put Weber State down in order in both the first and second innings, it felt like Montana was in control.

That all changed in the top of the third when Noelle Foster had a one-out single, a bunt to third, that gave the Wildcats their first hit of the game. And a spark.

A walk, a fielder's choice and two infield singles followed before Ashlyn Visser singled to center and Faith Hoe singled to right to drive in two. Just like that, Weber State led 5-4.

"Defensively we could have made some plays," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "When they scored a majority of their runs, I don't think a ball got out of the infield. We felt like those got away from us."

Montana would never regain the lead because of the pitching of freshman Amanda Sink, who entered the game in the bottom of the second and pitched the rest of the way to pick up her second win of the series.

She allowed just six hits in Friday's 10-2 five-inning win. Replacing Donaldson on Saturday, she was just as efficient. She allowed just five hits over the final six innings, allowing one run.

"I don't think we ever got the timing of her pitch to be able to drive a ball," said Meuchel.

After Becker drove in Jaxie Klucewich with a single to right in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-5, Weber State answered with two in the fifth and three in the sixth off Montana starter Tristin Achenbach, who was relieved in the sixth after throwing 304 pitches between starts in Games 1 and 3.

Becker finished 3 for 3, her fourth three-hit game in the team's last five. McGrath added two hits, as did Klucewich.

Montana will now turn its attention to the postseason. First up will be the Hornets.

"The positives from the weekend are that we showed our ability to continue to play our way, to show some toughness we have," said Meuchel. "At times we played the game very well, on every side of the ball. I think we're playing a little bit more freely.

"Our players will continue to fight and grind and get after those opportunities that lie in front of us."