Griz face Bears as Big Sky Championship opens

The Montana softball team will take the No. 6 seed into this week's Big Sky Conference Championship, which is being held Wednesday through Saturday at Wildcat Softball Field in Ogden, Utah.

The Grizzlies (10-35, 4-11 BSC) will open the tournament with a first-round matchup against No. 3 Northern Colorado (21-20, 9-6 BSC) at noon on Wednesday.

The winner will advance to play No. 2 Sacramento State at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The loser will face an elimination game at noon on Thursday.

The tournament will have four games on Wednesday, with all six teams in action, three games on Thursday, two on Friday and the championship on Saturday, which will be one or two games.

The winner of the Big Sky Championship will advance to the NCAA Tournament. Regionals will open on Friday, May 19.

Coverage: All 10 or 11 games of the Big Sky Conference Championship will stream on ESPN+.

Things to know (Montana vs. Northern Colorado):

* Northern Colorado won the teams' series in Greeley last month, winning two of three games.

* With senior pitcher Erin Caviness throwing complete games, the Bears won Game 1 by a score of 10-2, Game 2 by a score of 7-1. Caviness allowed two earned runs over 12 innings of work.

* The Grizzlies won Game 2 by a score of 9-8. Montana built a 9-1 lead in the top of the fourth, then held on as Northern Colorado scored one in the fourth, three in the sixth and three in the seventh.

* Grace Haegele got the win for Montana, one of her two Division I victories this season, Allie Brock came on in the seventh to collect her lone save of the season.

* The game ended with Northern Colorado base runners on second and third with two outs and Brock getting a foul out to first base.

* Montana combined for six hits in Games 1 and 3. The Grizzlies had a season-high 15 hits in Game 2.

* Montana leads the all-time series 14-13, though Northern Colorado has won nine of the teams' last 12 meetings.

* The Bears have won two of the teams' three postseason matchups, including a 6-2 victory last season that knocked the Grizzlies out of the tournament.

* Northern Colorado, as the No. 6 seed, won a first-round game against No. 3 Montana 1-0 in 2019. No. 6 Montana knocked No. 4 Northern Colorado out of the 2021 tournament with a 7-6 win.

Things to know (Big Sky Championship):

* Idaho State, picked fifth out of six teams in the preseason poll, was sitting 3-4 in league in April 21 but went 7-1 down the stretch to earn a share of the regular-season title with Sacramento State at 10-5.

* Three of those seven wins came from a surprising three-game sweep of the Hornets on their home field, which helped give the Bengals their first Big Sky regular-season championship since 2015.

* Sacramento State won its first Big Sky regular-season title since 2018, though sharing it with Idaho State came with some disappointment.

* The Hornets were 10-2 in league after a sweep at Portland State in late April. Their closest pursuer at that time were the 5-4 Bengals, who last week won two of three at Weber State to catch the Hornets.

* Northern Colorado, picked last in the preseason poll, had its own strong finish to league to end up 9-6 and one game out of first place under first-year coach Dedeann Pendleton-Helm.

* The Bears were 2-4 in league after opening with Sacramento State and Idaho State. UNC then went 2-1 against Montana and Weber State, and ended the season with a home sweep of Portland State.

* Northern Colorado, which enters the postseason with six wins in its last seven games, is 21-20 overall. The Bears and the Hornets, who are 27-18, are the only two teams with overall records above .500.

* No. 4 seed Portland State was 6-3 in league through three weekends but stumbled down the stretch, losing its final six Big Sky games.

* The Vikings were swept at home by Sacramento State, by a combined score of 18-2, then lost three tight games at Northern Colorado. Portland State held a lead in all three games.

* Weber State is the No. 5 seed but the tournament host after winning last year's regular-season championship.

* The Wildcats went 1-2 against Idaho State, Sacramento State, Northern Colorado and Portland State, 2-1 against Montana.

* Montana is the tournament's No. 6 seed for the third consecutive season. The Grizzlies have an all-time tournament record of 11-10 in six appearances.

* Montana lost all five of its Big Sky series, getting swept at home by Sacramento State and going 1-2 against the other four teams.

* The latest NCAA RPI (out of 306 teams): Sacramento State (161), Weber State (187), Idaho State (210), Northern Colorado (221), Portland State (232), Montana (285).

* Portland State (.300) had the Big Sky's best regular-season batting average, Sacramento State (2.53) the league's lowest ERA.

Things to know (Montana at the Big Sky Championship):

* The Grizzlies are playing in their seventh consecutive Big Sky Championship and have an all-time tournament record of 11-10.

* Montana won the 2017 championship at Ogden, going 3-0 with a win over Idaho State and two over Weber State.

* No. 6 Montana opened last year's tournament with a 5-4 victory over No. 3 Portland State in eight innings, then lost 12-4 to No. 2 Sacramento State and 6-2 to No. 4 Northern Colorado.

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies closed the regular season dropping two of three games to Weber State at home, despite batting .385, outhitting the Wildcats 35-26 and outscoring them 18-17.

* Montana ended the regular season batting .245 with an ERA of 6.12. Those figures rank 223rd and 283rd nationally, respectively.

* Montana's 10 runs in its 11-10 home loss to Weber State on April 28 were a season high.

* Elise Ontiveros has multiple hits in four of Montana's last eight games. Her average of .298 leads the team.

* Grace Hardy takes a career-high six-game hitting streak into the postseason, as does Presley Jantzi, who is 9 for 20 (.450) over those six games.

* Kynzie Mohl went 4 for 8 in three games against Weber State, driving in four. … Evelyn O'Brien threw 9 1/3 innings in two relief appearances against Weber State. She allowed three hits and no runs.

* Montana had 10 or more hits three times in its first 37 games. The Grizzlies closed the regular season doing it four times in their final eight games.

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Players Mentioned

Allie Brock

Grace Haegele

Grace Hardy

Presley Jantzi

Kynzie Mohl

Evelyn O'Brien

Elise Ontiveros

University of Montana Athletics