Griz carry momentum to Purple Classic

The Montana softball team will pack a two-game winning streak and travel to Phoenix this week for Grand Canyon's Purple Classic.

It's the fifth consecutive season the Grizzlies (5-10) will play in one of Grand Canyon's tournaments, the seventh time overall in Montana's 10-year history.

In addition to the Grizzlies and host Lopes (11-4), other teams competing will be New Mexico (4-13), Pacific (2-12) and Toledo (5-3).

Montana last week traveled to Bakersfield for CSUB's Kathy Welter Classic and went 2-3, defeating the host Roadrunners in the its last two games of the tournament.

After playing five games in Phoenix this week, Montana will return home for nine straight games at Grizzly Softball Field.

Montana will play 22 of its next 25 games at home, with only its Big Sky Conference-opening series at Weber State breaking up a month and a half of home games.

That home schedule begins next week with the Montana Softball Classic, with Holy Cross and Northern Illinois traveling to Missoula.

The Purple Classic schedule:

Friday, 2 p.m. – vs. New Mexico
Friday, 7 p.m. – at Grand Canyon
Saturday, 9 a.m. – vs. Toledo
Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – vs. Pacific
Sunday, 9 a.m. – vs. Pacific

Coverage: Montana's game against Grand Canyon on Friday night will have coverage on ESPN+. The other games can be tracked via live stats.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies went 2-3 at the CSU Bakersfield last weekend. After opening with two losses to Saint Mary's and one to the Roadrunners, then falling behind CSUB 4-0 in its fourth game, Montana rallied for a 6-4 victory, then closed out the tournament with a 2-0 shutout of Bakersfield.

The shutout was Montana's first since a 1-0 victory over North Dakota in Hawaii in February 2022. The back-to-back Division I wins were the first for the Grizzlies since April 2022.

The biggest at-bat of the weekend was from Jocelyn Eisen in the top of the third in Montana's 6-4 comeback win over CSU Bakersfield. Trailing 4-0 and having been outscored 24-7 to that point of the tournament, Eisen's two-out, three-run home run sparked Montana's rally.

A two-run pinch-hit single by Riley Stockton in the top of the sixth gave Montana the lead and Rylee Rehbein shut out Bakersfield over the final five innings to collect her first collegiate win and her first complete game.

Rehbein followed that with a 2-0 shutout of the Roadrunners on Sunday morning, allowing five hits, all singles, while striking out 12.

She became only the fourth pitcher in program history, along with Tristin Achenbach, Michaela Hood and Maddy Stensby, to record 12 or more strikeouts in a game. Only Hood, who did so twice in 2017, did it as a freshman.

Rehbein had two strikeouts in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth, three in the sixth and one in the seventh. She closed out the bottom of the sixth with a pair of swinging strikeouts after the Roadrunners had loaded the bases with one out.

For the tournament, Rehbein went 2-0 and had a 1.45 ERA over 19 1/3 innings and three appearances. She struck out 24 while walking only two and allowed no extra-base hits.

Montana had just six hits in its 2-0 win but three of those came with runners in scoring position. Riley Peschek had an RBI double in the third, Hannah Jablonski an RBI single in the sixth.

Presley Jantzi had a team-high six hits at Bakersfield and leads Montana with a .353 batting average. Peschek had five hits, three of them doubles. She had three of the Grizzlies' seven extra-base hits in their five games.

Montana arrived at Bakersfield with one home run through its first 10 games.

The Grizzlies had two home runs in their tournament opener, a 4-3 loss to Saint Mary's, solo shots by Kelly Sweyer and Jessica Stanfield. It was the first time Montana had multiple home runs against a Division I opponent since facing Grand Canyon last February.

Stanfield's home run was her first as a Grizzly. Eisen's home run was her first as a collegiate player.

For the season, Montana is batting .219, which ranks last in the Big Sky and 259th nationally. The Grizzlies' ERA dropped from 5.17 entering the tournament to 4.79 after five games. That ranks fifth out of six teams in the Big Sky, 220th nationally.

Montana ranks 60th nationally in doubles (1.53/g). Rehbein ranks 33rd in strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.50). Rehbein leads the Big Sky in that category plus strikeouts per seven innings (8.1) and walks allowed per seven innings (1.08).

At a glance (New Mexico): The Lobos, who host Texas Tech on Wednesday, enter the week on a four-game losing streak and with an overall record of 4-13, which includes five run-rule losses.

Against a common opponent in UTEP, Montana lost 6-0 to the Miners, New Mexico lost 4-3 in eight innings and 4-2. The Lobos' wins have come against Tennessee State, Marist twice and Stephen F. Austin.

Through 17 games, New Mexico is batting .253 and has been nearly doubled up in runs scored (59) versus runs allowed (114). The Lobos have an ERA of 5.78, which ranks 251st nationally.

New Mexico went 19-31 a year ago under then first-year coach Nicole Dickson, who previously had a successful six-year run at Stephen F. Austin. The Lobos finished last in the Mountain West at 6-16. New Mexico was picked eighth out of nine teams in this year's preseason poll.

At a glance (Grand Canyon): The Lopes went 19-30 in 2021, improved to 39-16 in 2022, then had a breakout season last year, opening 20-1 and going 47-13 while winning the WAC tournament and making the NCAA tournament, where GCU had a 3-2 upset win at UCLA.

The Lopes, who play their first 20 games at home this season, are 11-4 through their first three home tournaments, with wins over Wisconsin, Ohio State and an 11-2 run-rule victory over then No. 17 Virginia Tech.

Grand Canyon's losses have come to Boise State, Cal, New Mexico State and Texas State.

Through 15 games, the Lopes are batting .302, while their true strength is their pitching staff. Grand Canyon has an ERA of 1.80 and has allowed only 35 runs through 15 games, holding its opponents to a batting average of .186.

Grand Canyon, behind 19-5 Utah Tech, finished second in the WAC last season with a 17-7 league record. The Lopes topped this year's preseason poll, collecting eight of 10 first-place votes.

At a glance (Toledo): The Rockets will go to Phoenix with a 5-3 record through two tournaments played at Spartanburg, S.C., and Murray, Ky.

Toledo has a team batting average of .294, an ERA of 2.53 with an opponent batting average of .222.

The Rockets went 21-25 last season under then first-year coach Jessica Bracamonte, 14-14 in the MAC to finish seventh out of 11 teams. Toledo was picked seventh in this year's preseason poll.

At a glance (Pacific): The Tigers went 10-30 last season and finished sixth out of six teams in the WCC with a 1-14 league record. They were picked to finish last again this season.

Pacific opened its season with a 7-6 win over Illinois-Chicago in Fullerton, Calif., but the Tigers have gone 1-11 since, four times getting shut out, five times falling by a single run.

Pacific is batting .222 on the season and has a staff ERA of 5.75, which ranks 247th nationally.

Series histories:

* Montana is 1-0 against New Mexico, defeating the Lobos 4-2 in Riverside, Calif., in 2018.

* The Grizzlies are 4-8 against Grand Canyon with all 12 prior meetings taking place on the Lopes' home field. Montana won four of the teams' first seven matchups between 2016 and '21 but Grand Canyon has won five straight over the Grizzlies, outscoring Montana 45-13.

* Montana has gone 2-1 against Toledo, defeating the Rockets at Northern Iowa's dome tournament in 2017 and splitting a pair of one-run games at Oregon in 2018.

* The Grizzlies are 1-3 against Pacific, facing the Tigers twice on the road in 2015 and again in neutral-site matchups in 2016 and '18.

Montana notes:

* Riley Peschek will take a four-game hitting streak to Phoenix. Montana's longest hitting streaks of the season, five, belong to Presley Jantzi and Jocelyn Eisen.

* Presley Jantzi leads Montana with five multi-hit games. Riley Stockton leads the Grizzlies with three multi-RBI games.

* Sunday's 2-0 victory over CSU Bakersfield marked the first time this season, through 15 games, that Montana scored first.

* Elise Ontiveros has reached base seven straight games, the high for Montana this season.

* Rylee Rehbein will take a scoreless innings streak of 12 1/3 into her next appearance.

* Riley Peschek has started all 15 games this season at shortstop, Presley Jantzi has started every game in right field.

Upcoming: The Montana Softball Classic at Grizzly Softball Field next Thursday through Sunday, with Holy Cross (0-2) and Northern Illinois (3-7) traveling to Missoula.

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Players Mentioned

Jocelyn Eisen

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Elise Ontiveros

Riley Peschek

Rylee Rehbein

Jessica Stanfield

Riley Stockton

Kelly Sweyer

University of Montana Athletics