Griz open 13-game home stand Monday

The Montana softball team will take a brief break from its Big Sky Conference schedule when it hosts Providence (MT) in a doubleheader on Monday afternoon at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (12-20) and Argos will have first pitch of Game 1 at 2 p.m. Providence is 7-16 and will leave town 7-16, counting Monday's games as scrimmages.

The doubleheader begins a 13-game home stand for Montana, one shy of the Grizzlies' longest home stand in program history, in 2017.

Montana will host Northern Colorado next weekend, then also get Idaho State and Portland State in Missoula for league series, in addition to a doubleheader against Carroll in mid-April.

The Grizzlies won't play another road game until wrapping up their Big Sky schedule with a series at Sacramento State on April 26-27.

Coverage: Monday's doubleheader can be seen on ESPN+ with Riley Corcoran calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): After going 6-3 on their nine-game home stand, the Grizzlies opened Big Sky Conference play in Ogden, Utah, on Friday and Saturday and got swept by Weber State.

Montana held just one lead in the series, 1-0 in the top of the first in Game 1. Weber State scored in the bottom of the first in all three games and played from ahead most of the series.

The Wildcats swept Friday's doubleheader by scores of 6-5 and 2-0, and run-ruled the Grizzlies on Saturday 12-4 in five innings.

Montana had every opportunity to win the series opener but stranded 12 runners on base, leaving the bases loaded in the first, fourth and sixth innings.

It was the most runners left on base this season, two off the program high for a game that did not go extra innings.

One game after totaling nine hits and a season-high 10 walks, Montana lost 2-0 to WSU starter Cali McCraw in Game 2. McCraw allowed two hits and faced just 23 batters, two over the minimum.

In Saturday's finale that got pushed back three hours because of rain, Weber State scored three in the first, three in the second, five in the fourth and walked off the run-rule win with a home run in the fifth.

Montana trailed 11-1 before scoring three runs in the to of the fifth to extend the game another half inning.

Weber State batted .366 in the series with three Montana pitchers finishing with an ERA of 8.31. The Grizzlies batted .271.

At a glance (Providence): The Argos will arrive on a nine-game losing streak, the last eight coming in four-game sweeps against ranked opponents from the high-level NAIA Cascade Collegiate Conference.

Two weekends ago, Providence went 0-4 at No. 10 Southern Oregon, getting outscored 48-11. On Thursday and Friday, the Argos went 0-4 at No. 15 Eastern Oregon, getting outscored 32-1.

In early March, Providence went 0-3 at No. 6 Oregon Tech, losing by a combined score of 34-4.

Four of Providence's wins this season came in a four-game sweep of Corban in a series played in Helena. The Argos also picked up a pair of league wins against Warner Pacific.

Through 23 games, Providence is batting .285 with 35 extra-base hits, only one of those a home run, coming off the bat of Sydnee Weber. The Argos have an ERA of 6.72.

Madi Moore, from Great Falls but a transfer from North Dakota, leads Providence with a .397 batting average and has three wins as a pitcher with a 5.12 ERA. Weber leads the team with 17 RBIs.

Series history: Montana is 12-0 all-time against Providence, sweeping doubleheaders in Missoula in 2015, '16, '18, '19, '22 and '23.

The Grizzlies have outscored the Argos 96-18. Montana won last year's doubleheader by scores of 6-4 and 5-1.

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies had four doubles in their series at Weber State. Montana ranks second nationally at 2.07 doubles per game.

* Bryant (2.17), Montana (2.07), Penn State (2.03), East Carolina (2.00) and Florida (2.00) are the only teams averaging two or more doubles per game.

* Presley Jantzi went 5 for 8 at Weber State with three walks to up her season batting average to .432.

* Jantzi leads the Big Sky in batting average and on-base percentage (.480), is tied for first in hits (48) and is tied for second in doubles (12).

* Jantzi is on a six-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 22 of Montana's last 25 games. Her 10-game hitting streak earlier this season tied for the ninth longest in program history.

* Jantzi has reached base safely in 17 straight games, tied for the 10th longest streak in program history.

* Emmalyn Brinka went 0-2 at Weber State but had the team's best ERA of 3.50. She went the distance in Game 2, Montana's 2-0 loss, allowing five hits, her second complete game of the season.

* The first run Brinka allowed in Game 2 ended her run of scoreless innings at 9 1/3.

* Montana ranks fourth out of six teams in the Big Sky in batting average (.267), sixth in ERA (4.98).

* The Grizzlies have 84 extra-base hits this season, two off Idaho State's league lead of 86. The Grizzlies lead the Big Sky in both doubles (64) and triples (9).

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Weber State and Portland State, picked fifth and fourth in the preseason poll, respectively, both opened 3-0 on opening week.

* The Wildcats outscored Montana 20-9 to sweep the Grizzlies in Ogden.

* With Idaho State unable to host Portland State in Pocatello because of home-field renovations, the teams played a game in Nampa on Friday, two in Boise on Saturday.

* The Vikings remained the hottest team in the league, winning 3-1, 7-4 and 9-4 over the Big Sky preseason favorite to improve to 11-2 in their last 13 games.

* In the Big Sky's other series, Sacramento State took two of three from Northern Colorado in Greeley.

* The Hornets won twice on Friday, 1-0 behind a two-hitter from Marissa Bertuccio and 6-4 with a sixth-inning grand slam turning a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead.

* The Bears won Game 3 with Erin Caviness throwing a complete game with six strikeouts.

Upcoming: Montana will host Northern Colorado in a Saturday doubleheader, in a single game on Sunday.

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Players Mentioned

Emmalyn Brinka

Presley Jantzi

University of Montana Athletics