What’s gotten into Elise Ontiveros?
5/4/2022 12:53:00 PM | Softball
Nothing at all, actually, which is probably why she's hitting .419 since becoming a starter last month. She's been liberated.
"When you know you have the spot, it's easier. You can relax a little bit. You've proved yourself, so you can just keep doing what you're doing and stay relaxed. I'm not tense anymore," she said this week, after going 7 for 9 against Northern Colorado last weekend to up her season batting average to .366.
That ranks second on the team behind only one other player, the otherworldly Maygen McGrath.
Ontiveros got some starts early last year as a freshman, but her role dropped off as the season went along. She didn't get an at-bat after March 20 and finished the season with six hits or one fewer than she had on Friday and Saturday against the Bears.
She made five starts through the first month of this season, fighting to break into the starting outfield triumvirate of Julie Phelps, Jaxie Klucewich and Brooklyn Weisgram. Fighting and struggling. She was 0 for 9 on the season when the Grizzlies returned home for the Montana Invitational in mid-March.
Every at-bat wasn't just an at-bat within a game, it was a chance to showcase her talents, a brief moment in time when she was being judged and had the opportunity to prove herself worthy of more, a larger role on the team, more plate appearances.
That's a heavy weight to drag up to the plate. And her numbers reflected it. "I'd tense up and think, I have to hit the ball, I have to hit the ball," she says.
Then a break went her way. The team had to shift some personnel. Klucewich moved into the infield to play second base. That opened a spot in left. Ontiveros was written on the lineup card on March 11 against DePaul and hasn't looked back.
In her first at-bat, with the pressure of having to perform lifted, she doubled to right-center leading off the bottom of the third.
It isn't what's gotten into Elise Ontiveros that's the story, it's what's been removed and how that's freed her up to be the player she always knew she could be.
"I'm really comfortable (at the plate right now). I just go in there and clear my mind. Before I used to put a lot of pressure on myself. Now I just go in there with an empty mind. See the ball, hit the ball. It's worked out for me so far," she said.
She's started Montana's last 23 games. It's that stretch when she's been hitting better than .400. She's hit safely in 16 of those 23 games. In eight of those 16 games, she's had multiple hits. She's 9 for her last 14.
The person least surprised by all of it? Ontiveros herself. "I know the player I am and always have been. I know the potential I've always had in me. It was just getting the opportunity to show the player that I actually am," she said.
"Coach (Melanie Meuchel) already knew what I could do, so it's not like I had to prove myself to her. I didn't have to prove myself to the team, because they know what I can do too. They see me in practice."
For as hot as her bat has been, it's her defensive efforts that have had the social media handlers who cover softball for the NCAA highlighting her web gems, retweeting one diving grab, adding an over-the-fence thievery at Sacramento State as one of its five Plays of the Week.
The outfield is where she made her name and her reputation growing up in Bakersfield, Calif., leaving opposing coaches wondering how it's possible she had just made her latest grab.
She has both a feel for her surroundings and a relentlessness that no ball will touch grass, on either side of the wall.
In Game 3 at Sacramento State, Ontiveros backed up to the fence to get her bearings, moved along its perimeter toward the foul pole, then jumped at just the right moment to grab Lexie Webb's attempt at season home run No. 16.
"In high school I had quite a bit of those. I either fly at the fence and my momentum takes me over, or I have to reach over the fence," she says.
"I've been questioned on that many times. In high school, when they had the giveaway fences that were a little shorter, I'd always make sure my foot was down when reaching over, but there have been so many times that the other team's coach comes over and says it's a home run.
"Then they go back and watch the film and it's not."
It comes from being the younger sister of a pitcher. She wants to fight for her pitcher just like she wanted her sister's teammates to have her back.
"Basically, what I've always stood by is always helping your pitcher out," says Ontiveros. "If they get a ball anywhere near you, you make that play. At a very young age, that mentality set in for me.
"You've got to give it all you've got for your pitcher, always lay it on the line for your pitcher."
In that way she is the perfect complement to Phelps in center, herself the owner of several jaw-dropping grabs this season.
"It's amazing having Julie next to me. It's just comfortable. We both cover a lot of ground. It's nice knowing there are girls in the outfield holding it down with me. They are giving it all they have and I'm giving it all I have," says Ontiveros.
And when one does something spectacular, which is now happening as a matter of routine, they meet up in left-center and spontaneously hug it out. Then maybe throw in a little dance move.
"Some of it is choreographed," says Phelps, who has played error-free defense in center this season. "A lot of it is just pure, on-the-spot excitement for each other.
"We always kind of knew she had it. It was just a matter of her getting a chance to be able to show what she has. She's really stepped up for us this year."
Up next: the Big Sky Conference tournament in Ogden, Utah, where Montana will try to replicate the run it made last season behind the pitching of Tristin Achenbach.
The Grizzlies won three games and were one play away from facing Portland State in the championship series.
"Everybody has to be on their A game. Everybody has to have the same mindset and be on the same page," says Ontiveros. "When we come together, when we're 18 strong, I don't think anyone can beat us."
"When you know you have the spot, it's easier. You can relax a little bit. You've proved yourself, so you can just keep doing what you're doing and stay relaxed. I'm not tense anymore," she said this week, after going 7 for 9 against Northern Colorado last weekend to up her season batting average to .366.
That ranks second on the team behind only one other player, the otherworldly Maygen McGrath.
Ontiveros got some starts early last year as a freshman, but her role dropped off as the season went along. She didn't get an at-bat after March 20 and finished the season with six hits or one fewer than she had on Friday and Saturday against the Bears.
She made five starts through the first month of this season, fighting to break into the starting outfield triumvirate of Julie Phelps, Jaxie Klucewich and Brooklyn Weisgram. Fighting and struggling. She was 0 for 9 on the season when the Grizzlies returned home for the Montana Invitational in mid-March.
Every at-bat wasn't just an at-bat within a game, it was a chance to showcase her talents, a brief moment in time when she was being judged and had the opportunity to prove herself worthy of more, a larger role on the team, more plate appearances.
That's a heavy weight to drag up to the plate. And her numbers reflected it. "I'd tense up and think, I have to hit the ball, I have to hit the ball," she says.
Then a break went her way. The team had to shift some personnel. Klucewich moved into the infield to play second base. That opened a spot in left. Ontiveros was written on the lineup card on March 11 against DePaul and hasn't looked back.
In her first at-bat, with the pressure of having to perform lifted, she doubled to right-center leading off the bottom of the third.
It isn't what's gotten into Elise Ontiveros that's the story, it's what's been removed and how that's freed her up to be the player she always knew she could be.
"I'm really comfortable (at the plate right now). I just go in there and clear my mind. Before I used to put a lot of pressure on myself. Now I just go in there with an empty mind. See the ball, hit the ball. It's worked out for me so far," she said.
She's started Montana's last 23 games. It's that stretch when she's been hitting better than .400. She's hit safely in 16 of those 23 games. In eight of those 16 games, she's had multiple hits. She's 9 for her last 14.
The person least surprised by all of it? Ontiveros herself. "I know the player I am and always have been. I know the potential I've always had in me. It was just getting the opportunity to show the player that I actually am," she said.
"Coach (Melanie Meuchel) already knew what I could do, so it's not like I had to prove myself to her. I didn't have to prove myself to the team, because they know what I can do too. They see me in practice."
For as hot as her bat has been, it's her defensive efforts that have had the social media handlers who cover softball for the NCAA highlighting her web gems, retweeting one diving grab, adding an over-the-fence thievery at Sacramento State as one of its five Plays of the Week.
The outfield is where she made her name and her reputation growing up in Bakersfield, Calif., leaving opposing coaches wondering how it's possible she had just made her latest grab.
She has both a feel for her surroundings and a relentlessness that no ball will touch grass, on either side of the wall.
In Game 3 at Sacramento State, Ontiveros backed up to the fence to get her bearings, moved along its perimeter toward the foul pole, then jumped at just the right moment to grab Lexie Webb's attempt at season home run No. 16.
"In high school I had quite a bit of those. I either fly at the fence and my momentum takes me over, or I have to reach over the fence," she says.
"I've been questioned on that many times. In high school, when they had the giveaway fences that were a little shorter, I'd always make sure my foot was down when reaching over, but there have been so many times that the other team's coach comes over and says it's a home run.
"Then they go back and watch the film and it's not."
It comes from being the younger sister of a pitcher. She wants to fight for her pitcher just like she wanted her sister's teammates to have her back.
"Basically, what I've always stood by is always helping your pitcher out," says Ontiveros. "If they get a ball anywhere near you, you make that play. At a very young age, that mentality set in for me.
"You've got to give it all you've got for your pitcher, always lay it on the line for your pitcher."
In that way she is the perfect complement to Phelps in center, herself the owner of several jaw-dropping grabs this season.
"It's amazing having Julie next to me. It's just comfortable. We both cover a lot of ground. It's nice knowing there are girls in the outfield holding it down with me. They are giving it all they have and I'm giving it all I have," says Ontiveros.
And when one does something spectacular, which is now happening as a matter of routine, they meet up in left-center and spontaneously hug it out. Then maybe throw in a little dance move.
"Some of it is choreographed," says Phelps, who has played error-free defense in center this season. "A lot of it is just pure, on-the-spot excitement for each other.
"We always kind of knew she had it. It was just a matter of her getting a chance to be able to show what she has. She's really stepped up for us this year."
Up next: the Big Sky Conference tournament in Ogden, Utah, where Montana will try to replicate the run it made last season behind the pitching of Tristin Achenbach.
The Grizzlies won three games and were one play away from facing Portland State in the championship series.
"Everybody has to be on their A game. Everybody has to have the same mindset and be on the same page," says Ontiveros. "When we come together, when we're 18 strong, I don't think anyone can beat us."
Players Mentioned
P
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
INF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
OF
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballLady Griz Basketball Locker Room Unveiling - 5/1/26
Friday, May 01
Griz Track & Field - Montana Open Highlights - 4/25/26
Friday, May 01
Griz Softball vs. Idaho State Game-Winning Hit - 3/25/26
Friday, May 01
Griz Softball Championship Series Promo
Friday, May 01
