Wildcats take finale, win series

Saturday, April 29

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

10-35, 4-11

Weber State

11-28, 5-7

Weber State

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/UM Athletics

4/29/2023 5:04:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Weber State scored three in the top of the first and added two more in the second, and that was all the Wildcats needed for a 5-2 victory over Montana on Saturday afternoon at a festive Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The game drew a crowd of 826, the second-largest in program history.

The Grizzlies (10-35, 4-11 BSC) outhit the Wildcats (11-28, 5-7 BSC), but Weber State's hits were simply more impactful.

With runners in scoring position, Weber State batted .500, going 4 for 8. Montana was 3 for 18 with runners on base, 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

The Grizzlies left nine runners on base, just as they did in both Games 1 and 2 on Friday.

"Pretty even game. Hits were very equal, defenses were very equal. The separator was left on base. That's the area that got us a little bit today," said Montana coach Melanie Meuchel.

For the second straight game, Weber State jumped on Montana in the top of the first and grabbed a lead the Wildcats would hold the remainder of the game.

Weber State went up 7-0 in Game 2 on Friday on its way to an 11-10 win. The Wildcats went up 3-0 in Game 3 on Saturday against Montana starter Allie Brock. A pair of doubles drove in three runs.

The Grizzlies answered right back in the bottom of the first. Kendall Curtis had a two-out double and Kynzie Mohl followed with her second career home run to make it 3-2.

Weber State went up 5-2 in the top of the second on an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.

Just when it appeared the game would follow the script of Game 2, when 21 runs were scored, a pair of relievers came in and held their opponent in check the rest of the way.

After Montana's first two batters in the bottom of the second got on base, Weber State went to Jayci Finch. She got out of the inning without allowing a run and kept the Grizzlies off the scoreboard through the seventh.

She earned her third win of the season largely by pitching out of trouble.

She stranded the two runners she inherited in the second, two more in the third and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fourth that was the Grizzlies' last real threat of the game.

With the bases full and one out, Finch snagged a sharply hit ball back to herself off the bat of Elise Ontiveros and cut the lead runner down at home plate. Curtis followed with a line drive to center that was caught to end the inning.

Finch allowed just two hits over the final three innings to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Montana freshman Evelyn O'Brien pitched four hitless innings in Game 2 and came on in relief of Brock in the top of the second on Saturday after Weber State had gone up 5-2.

She got out of a bases-loaded jam herself in the second, then allowed three hits over the final five innings to once again keep her team in the game.

Ontiveros had two hits, as did Presley Jantzi, who went 5 for 9 in the series with three runs scored.

Montana out-hit and out-scored Weber State on the weekend but still dropped to 2-14 in its last 16 Big Sky series dating back to the 2021 season.

Montana will take the No. 6 seed into the six-team, double-elimination Big Sky Conference Championship, which opens Wednesday, May 10, in Ogden, Utah.

"The conference tournament is sitting in front of us. We see signs that we could be pretty dangerous and then signs that we're still growing," said Meuchel. "We'll push to put it together."