Montana to host Carroll on Tuesday

The Montana softball team will take a break from its Big Sky Conference schedule when it hosts Carroll in a single game on Tuesday afternoon in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (17-20) and Saints (12-28) will play at 3 p.m. at Grizzly Softball Field.

The game will be the final nonconference contest for Montana, which closes its regular season with league series against Sacramento State and Northern Colorado the next two weekends.

The Grizzlies will travel to Sacramento to face the Hornets on Friday and Saturday, then host the Bears the final weekend of April.

The six-team Big Sky tournament will open on Wednesday, May 11, in Ogden, Utah.

Coverage: Tuesday's game will be available on ESPN+ with Riley Corcoran calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies went 0-2 last weekend against Big Sky leader Weber State in a series that was shortened by a game because of wet conditions in Ogden on Friday.

Playing a doubleheader on Saturday, Montana lost 6-5 and 10-5.

The Grizzlies put up 10 runs on 18 hits against the Big Sky's top pitching staff but couldn't slow down the league's top offensive team.

The Wildcats batted .365 in the series and drew 13 walks, which led to Weber State scoring in eight of its 12 innings of at-bats.

Weber State jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opener, then held on as Montana scored three runs in the top of the seventh to pull within one. The Grizzlies had two runners on base when the game ended on a strikeout.

Montana held 1-0 and 2-1 leads early in Game 2 before Weber State pulled away. The Wildcats scored three in the second, two in the fourth and four in the fifth to reach 10 runs for the seventh time this season.

Maygen McGrath went 4 for 7 in the series and hit two home runs. She drove in five and scored three runs. Cami Sellers had three hits, one of which was a home run.

Montana pitchers had an 8.17 ERA in the doubleheader. They walked 13 in two games and had seven wild pitches.

At a glance (Carroll): The Saints, who are counting Tuesday's game as an exhibition and not as part of its record, have dropped six straight.

The last four games of that streak came at Southern Oregon last weekend, when Carroll got outscored 36-2 in a pair of doubleheaders.

The Saints are sitting in ninth place out of 11 teams in the strong Cascade Collegiate Conference standings, ahead of Warner Pacific and Providence.

Last year's NAIA national championship series in Georgia was decided between two CCC teams, with Southern Oregon winning the title over Oregon Tech.

Carroll is batting .285, with Kenna Thomas, a freshman from Belgrade, and Kirsten Norris, a junior from Phoenix, batting .377 and .372, respectively.

Carroll's staff has an ERA of 6.34. Junior Abby Hanley, of Las Vegas, has thrown 23 complete games this season in her 26 starts. She has a record of 10-16.

Series history:

* Montana is 12-0 against Carroll, with all 12 games being played in Missoula. The Saints have scored just six runs in those games and have been shut out eight times.

* Both programs began playing in 2015. They've played a doubleheader every season except 2020.

* Montana has outscored Carroll 93-6 in their dozen matchups.

* The Grizzlies swept last year's doubleheader, winning 4-0 and 8-0, the latter ending on a Cami Sellers grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Montana notes:

* Maygen McGrath went 4 for 7 at Weber State to up her season batting average to .376, which ranks third in the Big Sky.

* Since opening the season going 1 for 16 in five games at the Nor Cal Kickoff, McGrath has gone 43 for 101 (.426) with 15 multiple-hit outings.

* McGrath has five three-hit games this season. Four have come in the last eight games.

* McGrath's two home runs at Weber State give her 12 for the season, bringing her within two of Delene Colburn's program record of 14, set in 2017. McGrath came within one of the record last season when she hit 13.

* McGrath's 37 career home runs rank second in program history behind Colburn's 45.

* McGrath ranks second in the Big Sky in home runs this season, behind only Sacramento State's Lexie Webb. The Fresno State transfer has 15.

* How comfortable is McGrath at the plate? Four of her last six home runs have come with two strikes.

* Cami Sellers' sixth home run of the season, in the top of the seventh in Game 2 at Weber State, was the 26th of her career. She ranks third in program history behind Colburn and McGrath.

* Montana (.291) ranks third in the Big Sky in batting average, behind Weber State (.295) and Sacramento State (.293).

* The Grizzlies (4.47) rank fifth in ERA. Weber State (3.03), Portland State (3.38), Sacramento State (3.59) and Idaho State (3.98) all have staff ERAs lower than 4.0.

* Cami Sellers has four multiple-hit games in Montana's last seven. … Sellers' next multiple-hit game will be the 50th of her career. Only Delene Colburn (67), MaKenna McGill (53), Bethany Olea (53), McGrath (53) and Ashlyn Lyons (52) have had more.

* Kylie Becker has hit safely in eight of Montana's last 10 games while adding 55 points to her batting average.

* With her RBI single in the top of the seventh in Game 1 at Weber State, Becker moved into 10th on the Montana career list with her 56th RBI.

* Kendall Curtis had a pair of pinch-run appearances at Weber State. It was her first game action since March 5.

* Jaxie Klucewich has hit safely in seven of Montana's last eight games. She has 14 hits in those eight games.

* Since moving into the starting lineup on March 11, Elise Ontiveros is batting .364, second on the team behind McGrath, who is batting .510 in those 16 games.

* Montana's 10 walks allowed in Game 1 at Weber State were a season high and its most since walking 11 last year at Texas A&M. The previous high this season had been four.

* Over the last 10 games Montana's ERA has gone from 3.73 to 4.47, the highest it's been this season.

Upcoming: Montana will play a series at Sacramento State later this week, a doubleheader on Friday starting at 1 p.m. (MT), a single game on Saturday, also starting at 1 p.m. (MT).

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Players Mentioned

Kylie Becker

Kendall Curtis

Jaxie Klucewich

Maygen McGrath

Elise Ontiveros

Cami Sellers

University of Montana Athletics