Griz make home debut, host Carroll

The Montana softball team, after playing its first 25 games of the season on the road, will have its first home games of 2023 when it hosts Carroll for a doubleheader on Monday afternoon.

The Grizzlies (2-23) and Saints (7-12) will play their opener at 2 p.m. at Grizzly Softball Field, with the second game to begin around 4:30 p.m.

Carroll will get a head start when it hosts Northwest University for a four-game series at Grizzly Softball Field on Saturday and Sunday.

Montana will host Providence (MT) for a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 28.

The Argos (0-11) also will be playing a four-game series in Missoula this weekend, four games against the University of British Columbia, two on Friday and two on Saturday.

Montana will open its Big Sky Conference schedule when it plays a three-game series at Portland State on Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2.

The Grizzlies will get home series against Sacramento State (April 7-8) and Weber State (April 28-29), and play at Northern Colorado (April 14-15) and Idaho State (April 21-22).

Coverage: Monday's doubleheader will be available on both ESPN+ and SWX, with Riley Corcoran calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies will go into Monday's doubleheader with a record of 2-23. After opening the season 0-20, Montana picked up a pair of wins over UNLV at the Seattle U Invitational last weekend.

The Grizzlies defeated the Rebels 2-1 on Friday, 5-4 on Saturday, with senior Kendall Curtis coming through with the game-winning hit in the sixth inning in both games. She had a go-ahead two-run single in Friday's win, a solo home run in Saturday's win that broke a late tie.

Curtis went 6 for 11 (.545) in Seattle, with three RBI and two runs scored, to earn Big Sky Player of the Week honors on Monday, the first of her career.

Montana dropped a pair of close games to the host Redhawks, a team that is now 19-6, on Friday and Saturday, then got shut out on Sunday, 8-0, the Grizzlies' eighth time this season getting shut out, their 20th time in 25 games scoring three or fewer runs.

In opening the season 0-20, Montana had an ERA of 8.28. With junior Allie Brock making two quality starts, one against UNLV, one against Seattle, the Grizzlies had an ERA of 3.39 in five games last weekend, which allowed nine runs and 26 hits in five games to turn into a pair of victories.

Montana batted .211 in Seattle and is hitting .209 on the season. That batting average ranks 268th nationally out of 295 teams. The Grizzlies rank 281st at 2.08 runs per game, 283rd in ERA at 7.18.

At a glance (Carroll): The Saints are 7-12, with more than half of those wins coming in a four-game sweep of Warner Pacific two weekends ago.

In other Cascade Collegiate Conference series, Carroll got swept by College of Idaho and Oregon Tech, leaving the Saints 3-6 in league.

(The league plays four-game series. The first three games of a series count toward the league standings.)

Carroll went 14-31 last season, 11-19 in league. The Saints were picked sixth out of 11 CCC teams in this year's poll.

Carroll, which began its season with consecutive trips to Minot, N.D., for indoor tournaments, is batting a healthy .317 and has 50 extra-base hits through 19 games. The Saints average nearly five runs per game.

Jessica Nimmo is batting .400, with 20 hits in 50 at-bats. She leads the team with 16 RBI.

The pitching staff has an ERA of 7.95, with nobody below 6.49. Opponents are hitting .333 against Carroll and have 69 extra-base hits in 19 games, 19 of those being home runs.

Series history: Montana is 13-0 all-time against Carroll, with all 13 of those games coming at Grizzly Softball Field.

Montana outscored Carroll 93-6 through the first 12 games of the series.

In last year's game, the Grizzlies trailed 7-5 going into the bottom of the fifth before rallying with two runs in the fifth, two in the sixth to win 9-7.

Montana notes:

* Hannah Jablonski, at first base, and Julie Phelps, in center field, have started every game this season at their position, with Kelly Sweyer making 25 starts at designated player.

* Dana Butterfield, who matched the team high with 10 wins last year, has yet to pitch this season. The other 10-game winner from last year, Allie Brock, missed a weekend and a half this spring.

* Freshman Grace Haegele has made a team-high 11 starts this season and has appeared in 17 of 25 games. Freshman Evelyn O'Brien has appeared in 13 games, with one start.

* Brock, back to full health, looked like Montana's ace last weekend in Seattle. In Friday's 2-1 win over UNLV, Montana's first victory of the season, she allowed a run in the bottom of the first, then held the Rebels without a run and to three hits over the final six innings.

* In Saturday's 2-1, eight-inning loss to Seattle, Brock gave up the tying run in the bottom of the sixth, the winning run in the bottom of the eighth after a runner began the inning on second base.

* Brock went 1-1 on the weekend with a 0.95 ERA. She allowed 13 hits in 14 2/3 innings while holding opponents to a .241 batting average.

* Haegele picked up her first collegiate win in Saturday's 5-4 victory over UNLV. She came on in relief of starter Maggie Joseph in the fifth inning and was the pitcher of record when Curtis hit her tie-breaking home run in the bottom of the sixth. Given the lead, Haegele worked a 1-2-3 top of the seventh.

* Haegele had a 3.82 ERA in three appearances in Seattle. She walked just two batters in 11 innings of work. She entered the Seattle U Invitational with an ERA of 9.33 and had given up 44 walks in 39 innings.

* All nine of Montana's home runs this season have come in the fourth inning or later.

* Elise Ontiveros leads Montana with five multiple-hit games, three multiple-RBI games.

* Montana has been outscored 99-15 through the first three innings this season but in five games at Seattle the Grizzlies outscored their opponents 5-3 through three innings.

* Kendall Curtis had two hits in both of Montana's game on Saturday, against UNLV, then Seattle. They were her first multiple-hit games of the season. She hit safely in four of five games in Seattle.

* Curtis's tiebreaking home run on Saturday against UNLV was her second home run of the season, the fifth of her career.

* Elise Ontiveros had three two-hit games in Seattle. She raised her season average from .245 entering the tournament to a team-leading .292 after five games.

* Riley Stockton had a base hit in the four games she started in Seattle.

* Kelly Sweyer hit a ball out of Logan Field against UNLV in the bottom of the first on Saturday but ended up passing a base runner between first and second base. She was credited with a single and an RBI, with a putout awarded to the first baseman.

* Sweyer remains tied for the team lead in home runs with two with Kendall Curtis and Hannah Jablonski.

* Freshman Breiana Bonkavich was a pinch runner in the sixth on Friday when Curtis hit a two-run single to right that scored Chloe Saxton from third, Bonkavich from second. It was Bonkavich's first collegiate run scored. It turned out to be the game-winning run in Montana's first win of the season.

* Julie Phelps leads the Big Sky in walks with 14.

Around the Big Sky:

* Sacramento State, behind the league's top pitching (3.34 ERA), is off to a 14-9 start. The Hornets have a Power 5 win over Kansas.

* Sac State's Marissa Bertuccio is 8-3 with a 1.76 ERA. Her teammate, Caroline Evans, has a 1.95 ERA.

* Northern Colorado, picked last in the preseason poll, is off to an 11-10 start under first-year coach Dedeann Pendleton-Helm, who spent the previous 17 seasons as an assistant at Colorado State.

* The Bears have a team batting average of .282, an ERA of 4.37, second behind Sacramento State.

* Idaho State has eight wins behind the Big Sky's top offense. The Bengals are batting .293 and have a league-high 56 extra-base hits, including 15 home runs. The next closest in extra-base hits is Portland State at 41.

* Preseason favorite Weber State is 6-15 with some uncharacteristic numbers. The Wildcats are batting .252 and have an ERA of 6.58. WSU led the Big Sky in both last season at .311 and 2.92.

Upcoming: Montana will host Providence (MT) in a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 28, at Grizzly Softball Field.

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Players Mentioned

Breiana Bonkavich

Allie Brock

Dana Butterfield

Kendall Curtis

Grace Haegele

Hannah Jablonski

Maggie Joseph

Evelyn O'Brien

Elise Ontiveros

Julie Phelps

Chloe Saxton

Riley Stockton

Kelly Sweyer

University of Montana Athletics