Bats go quiet as Griz drop two games

Friday, February 25

Honolulu, Hawaii

3 PM (MT)

Montana

5-7

Abilene Christian

6-6

Abilene Christian

Montana

2/25/2022 10:22:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team dropped games to Abilene Christian and North Dakota on Friday as the Outrigger Hawaii Invitational continued in Honolulu at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

Montana lost 8-0 to Abilene Christian and 6-4 to North Dakota, with the Grizzlies totaling just nine hits in the two games, seven of them singles and a pair of doubles. Montana left 19 runners on base.

Both games were tied in the fifth before the Wildcats and Fighting Hawks pulled away to hand Montana its second and third loss of the tournament. Hawaii defeated Montana 7-5 on Thursday night.

The Grizzlies will be the No. 4 seed in Saturday's mini-tournament and face the No. 1 seed at 3 p.m. (MT), with a second game to follow at either 5 or 7 p.m. (MT).

Friday's opener was an early pitchers' duel between Dana Butterfield and Abilene Christian's Sidney Holman.

Butterfield set down the first 10 batters she faced and only allowed one hit through four innings.

She gave up three hits in the top of the fifth but got out of the jam thanks to two outfield assists from right fielder Brooklyn Weisgram.

Montana had a runner thrown out at the plate in the first and left two runners on base in the third, fourth and fifth innings, when the game was still scoreless.

Abilene Christian opened the scoring on an RBI single in the top of the sixth, then added five more runs with two outs to build a 6-0 advantage.

Butterfield and Allie Brock, who relieved Butterfield in the top of the sixth, both walked a run in with the bases loaded.

The Wildcats added two more in the top of the seventh on a two-run home run.

Maygen McGrath had two of Montana's four hits in the game.

Montana struck first against North Dakota. After the Grizzlies' first two batters of the game got out, the next three walked, bringing up Julie Phelps, who hit a grand slam on Thursday against Hawaii.

She singled down the left-field line to make it 1-0, but that's where it would end as the Grizzlies left the bases loaded.

Montana left two on in the second, one in the third. That allowed North Dakota to take a 2-1 lead on a pair of RBI singles. The Fighting Hawks went 6 for 14 in the game with runners in scoring position.

Montana tied it 2-2 in the top of the fourth when Kylie Becker, who got on by walk, one of nine free passes issued by UND's pitchers, scored on a wild pitch.

Every time Montana evened the score, North Dakota had an answer in the bottom half of the inning.

Two RBI singles by the Fighting Hawks in the bottom of the fourth made it 4-2.

A pinch-hit RBI double by Kelly Sweyer and a pinch-hit RBI ground out by Jaxie Klucewich in the fifth evened the score again at 4-4.

And North Dakota responded with two more in the bottom half of the inning, scoring twice on RBI singles to make it 6-4.

Down two, Montana left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth and went down in order in the top of the seventh.

Butterfield took the loss against Abilene Christian, Brock the loss against North Dakota.