Montana opens league at Weber State

The Montana softball team, which has won seven of its last 10 games, will open its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when it plays a three-game series at Weber State.

The Grizzlies (12-17) and Wildcats (12-15) will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2 p.m. at Wildcat Softball Field, a single game on Saturday at noon.

The Grizzlies went 6-3 during their recently completed nine-game home stand, going 4-2 against Holy Cross and Northern Illinois at the Montana Softball Classic, then taking two of three from North Dakota.

After returning home from Ogden, Montana will open a 13-game home stand when it hosts Providence (MT) in a doubleheader on Monday starting at 2 p.m.

The home stand will include Big Sky series against Northern Colorado, Idaho State and Portland State.

After Saturday's game against the Wildcats, the Grizzlies won't play another road game until playing at Sacramento State April 26-27.

Coverage: All three games this week will be available on ESPN+.

At a glance (Big Sky Conference): League play for all six teams opens this week when Sacramento State plays at Northern Colorado and Idaho State faces Portland State across the state in Nampa and Boise.

Three of the Big Sky's six teams received a first-place vote in the preseason poll, with Idaho State (3) picked first, Northern Colorado (2) picked second, Sacramento State (1) picked third.

The Bengals and Bears both got hot late last season and ended up meeting in the Big Sky championship series, with Northern Colorado winning and advancing to the NCAA tournament.

It's been the Hornets who have been the top team through nonconference play, putting together a 19-12 record including a 3-2 win at then No. 9 Stanford.

Idaho State raced out to a 10-1 start to the season and is now 18-17. Northern Colorado is 15-17. Portland State, which had its eight-game winning streak come to an end the other day, is 11-16.

In the latest NCAA RPI, Sacramento State ranks 84th, Weber State 124th, Idaho State 168th, Northern Colorado 197th, Portland State 229th and Montana 275th out of 307 teams.

Montana's best win, according to the RPI, was its season-opening victory over Louisiana-Monroe, which is ranked 112th. The Grizzlies' other 11 wins have come against opponents with an average RPI of 275.7.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies enter league play on a roll, winners of seven of their last 10 games. They won their final game at Grand Canyon's Purple Classic, then went 6-3 during their home stand.

Through its first 20 games of the season, Montana batted .221 and got outscored 127-64, averaging just over three runs per game while totaling 41 extra-base hits.

During their nine-game home stand, the Grizzlies batted .363, scored 61 runs (6.8/g) and had 38 extra-base hits including 29 doubles. Montana ranks third nationally in doubles at 2.07 per game.

Within the six-team Big Sky, the Grizzlies rank fourth in batting (.267), sixth in ERA (4.70) and fifth in fielding percentage (.954). Sacramento State tops all three categories.

After going 4-2 at the Montana Softball Classic, the Grizzlies took two of three from North Dakota last Friday and Saturday.

Montana opened the series with a five-inning 9-1 run-rule victory over the Fighting Hawks, the Grizzlies' first run-rule victory over a Division I opponent since 2022.

Montana dropped Game 2 on Friday, 5-4, outhitting UND 12-7 but leaving 11 runners stranded, at least one every inning, five over the final two innings.

The Grizzlies won the series with a 9-3 victory on Saturday. With the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Presley Jantzi hit the 14th grand slam in program history to spark Montana to the victory.

Jantzi went 7 for 11 in the series with six runs batted in and four runs scored to earn Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors on Monday for the first time in her career.

That gave Montana two Players of the Week this season after Riley Peschek was honored two weeks earlier. It's the first time since 2019 the Grizzlies have had multiple players earn POW honors.

Jantzi's big week upped her batting average to .417, the second-highest in the Big Sky. Only four times in program history has a Grizzly batted .400 or better for an entire season.

Elise Ontiveros (.467) leads the Big Sky in on-base percentage, and Montana has three of the top seven in slugging percentage: Riley Peschek (.612), Kelly Sweyer (.603) and Presley Jantzi (.563).

Jantzi ranks second in hits (43) and is tied for 6th in both runs scored (19) and runs batted in (19). Jantzi and Peschek are tied for second in doubles with 10.

Montana, which had 68 extra-base hits all of last season, in 47 games, has 79 already this year, tied for the Big Sky lead with Idaho State.

Montana's ERA of 4.70 ranks last in the Big Sky and 230th nationally. Opponents are batting .347 against the Grizzlies and averaging 5.8 runs per game. The staff has a WHIP of 1.85.

Freshman Rylee Rehbein has become Montana's go-to starter. She has compiled a record of 6-3 and has an ERA of 3.80 while throwing four complete games.

Grace Haegele is 4-6 with a 4.54 ERA, Emmalyn Brinka is 2-8. She dropped her ERA from 6.34 to 5.36 during Montana's nine-game home stand.

At a glance (Weber State): The Wildcats, who are hosting No. 19 California on Wednesday, have been the Big Sky's top program since the league started sponsoring softball in 2013.

Weber State won or shared every Big Sky regular-season title from 2016 to '22 and won tournament championships in 2015, '16, '19 and '22.

The Wildcats took a step back last season, going 13-32 overall, one year after going 38-10 and winning the Big Sky tournament by a combined score of 27-0 over three games.

Weber State was picked fifth out of six teams in this year's poll, one spot ahead of Montana.

The Wildcats opened the season 1-6 but then won eight of their next nine, including a 5-4 eight-inning victory over then No. 19 Texas A&M.

Weber State is hitting .275 and has a 4.19 ERA. Opponents are batting .310 against the Wildcats.

Longtime Weber State coach Mary Kay Amicone announced in January that the 2024 season will be her last. She entered the year with nearly 800 career wins at WSU, Salt Lake Community College and BYU.

Series history: Montana is 10-19 against Weber State, 4-10 against the Wildcats in Ogden with five consecutive losses.

In last year's series in Missoula, Montana won the opening game 6-1, came up one hit short of rallying from a 9-0 deficit in Game 2, falling 11-10, then lost the finale 5-2.

Montana coach Melanie Meuchel is 4-13 against Weber State, 0-5 against the Wildcats in Ogden.

Montana notes:

* Presley Jantzi ranks 32nd nationally in hits (43). Jantzi and Riley Peschek rank 40th in doubles (10).

* Montana has lost its last nine Big Sky series, dating back to a sweep at Southern Utah in April 2022, and 11 of its last 12.

* Presley Jantzi's grand slam against North Dakota was the 14th in program history, the ninth for Montana since the start of the 2021 season.

* Jantzi has reached base 14 straight games, Riley Peschek 12 straight games, Elise Ontiveros 10 straight games.

* Jantzi has had multiple hits in six of her last seven games while taking her batting average from .346 to .417. She has a team-high 13 multiple-hit games this season.

* Montana is 1-13 this season when the Grizzlies don't score at least five runs.

* Jantzi has the team's longest active hitting streak of three. Her 10-game hitting streak earlier this season was tied for the ninth longest in program history.

* Hannah Jablonski went 5 for 7 with two doubles over the final two games of the North Dakota series.

Upcoming: A doubleheader against Providence (MT) on Monday opens a 13-game home stand for Montana.

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Players Mentioned

Emmalyn Brinka

Grace Haegele

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Elise Ontiveros

Riley Peschek

Rylee Rehbein

Kelly Sweyer

University of Montana Athletics