Montana Softball Classic to open Thursday

The three-team, four-day, eight-game Montana Softball Classic will open at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula on Thursday when Montana hosts Holy Cross at noon in a doubleheader.

Northern Illinois will be the third team competing. There will be two games on Thursday, three on Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Thursday is the home opener for Montana. It will be the earliest home opener in program history, the previous earliest home opener coming against DePaul in 2022 on March 11.

The schedule:

Thursday, noon – Montana vs. Holy Cross (DH)
Friday, 10 a.m. – Northern Illinois vs. Holy Cross
Friday, 12:30 p.m. – Montana vs. Northern Illinois
Friday, 3 p.m. – Montana vs. Holy Cross
Saturday, noon – Northern Illinois vs. Holy Cross
Saturday, 2:30 p.m. – Montana vs. Northern Illinois
Sunday, 11 a.m. – Montana vs. Northern Illinois

Coverage: The six Montana games will be streamed on ESPN+ and have live stats available. The two non-Montana games will have live stats only.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies enter their home tournament with a record of 6-14 after going 1-4 at Grand Canyon's Purple Classic in Phoenix last weekend.

Montana dropped games to New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Toledo and Pacific before closing out the tournament with a 5-4 win over Pacific on Sunday.

Montana held multiple-run leads in its losses to New Mexico (ahead 2-0), Toledo (ahead 4-0) and Pacific (ahead 5-2).

The Grizzlies batted .226 over five games in Phoenix and had more extra-base hits (12) than their opponents (11). Montana had eight doubles, a triple and three home runs.

Freshmen Riley Peschek and Madison Tarrant both had five-hit tournaments, with Peschek hitting two home runs and a double, Tarrant two doubles and a triple. Peschek scored a team-high four runs.

Presley Jantzi went 7 for 19 (.368) in Phoenix and came away with a five-game hitting streak. She leads Montana with seven multiple-hit games. The rest of the team has 16.

Three Montana pitchers had a five-game ERA of 6.32 with a .385 opponent batting average.

Freshman Rylee Rehbein picked up Montana's lone win, throwing 4 2/3 innings in Sunday's win over Pacific.

Jantzi is leading Montana in batting average through 20 games at .357. Peschek, who is batting .259, leads the Grizzlies with eight extra-base hits, 10 runs scored and nine batted in.

Jantzi's 25 hits on the season lead the Big Sky. She ranks ninth in batting average.

Rehbein leads Montana in wins (3), ERA (4.20) and innings pitched (41 2/3).

Rehbein took a streak of 12 1/3 scoreless innings to Phoenix and made it a program-record 16 2/3 before allowing a run to New Mexico. The previous record was 14 1/3, set by Michaela Hood.

Montana ranks sixth out of six Big Sky teams in batting average (.221) and ERA (5.16). The Grizzlies have an RPI of 278 out of 307 Division I programs.

At a glance (Holy Cross): The Crusaders were able to play only two games in February and will enter Thursday's doubleheader against Montana with a 2-6 record.

After opening 0-6 with three runs scored, Holy Cross swept a Monday doubleheader at Maryland-Eastern Shore by scores of 6-4 and 5-1.

Holy Cross, which hasn't had a winning season since 1998, went 15-36-1 a year ago and finished last in the Patriot League at 2-16.

The Crusaders, who are under third-year coach Kimberly Stiles, were picked sixth out of seven teams in this year's Patriot League preseason poll.

Senior utility player Megan Yurchick leads Holy Cross in both batting average (.368) and ERA (3.06). She was a second-team NFCA all-region player as a sophomore.

Holy Cross, which has an RPI of 247, has a team batting average of .203 with 14 runs scored in eight games and an ERA of 3.64.

Series history: Montana and Holy Cross will be meeting for the first time this week.

At a glance (Northern Illinois): The Huskies will arrive in Missoula this week with a record of 4-10.

Northern Illinois went 2-3 at the UNI-Dome Classic in Cedar Falls, Iowa, 1-4 at South Alabama's tournament and 1-3 last weekend at Western Kentucky's tournament.

The Huskies, who have a batting average of .234 and an ERA of 6.16, have an RPI of 171, best of the three teams in the Montana Softball Classic.

NIU has had a strong program for years under various coaches, with Christina Sutcliffe currently in her 12th year as head coach.

The Huskies went 26-25 last season and finished sixth in the MAC with a 15-13 league record. NIU was picked sixth again in this year's preseason poll.

Sophomore utility player Danielle Stewart, NFCA third-team all-region last year, is 3-4 with a 3.25 ERA and batting .268 with a team-high seven RBIs.

Series history: Montana and Northern Illinois have met just once previously, a 13-3 NIU victory at Grand Canyon's tournament in 2016.

Montana notes:

* Freshmen Madison Tarrant (.290) and Riley Peschek (.259) rank second and third behind Presley Jantzi in batting average.

* Batting leadoff in all 20 games this season, Jantzi has 16 more at-bats than any of her teammates.

* Peschek and Kelly Sweyer lead Montana with two home runs. Peschek hit both of her home runs last week at Grand Canyon, against New Mexico and Toledo.

* Grace Haegele, who entered Sunday's 5-4 win over Pacific in the fifth inning with the Grizzlies up 5-3, collected her first collegiate save by pitching the final 2 2/3 innings.

* After playing six games this week, Montana will host North Dakota for a three-game series from March 22-24. The Grizzlies will play 22 out of 25 games at home starting this week.

* Montana will play 13 straight games at home in April, one off the program high. The 2017 team played 14 straight home games.

* Montana will open its Big Sky schedule at Weber State on March 29-30.

* Montana's opponents have scored first in 16 of 20 games this season and have scored in the first inning 13 times.

* Four of Hannah Jablonski's 10 hits this season came last week at Grand Canyon. … Presley Jantzi has a hit in 14 of Montana's 20 games this season. … Kynzie Mohl's home run against Pacific on Saturday was the third of her career. … Breiana Bonkavich's RBI double in Sunday's win over Pacific was the first extra-base hit of her career, her second RBI. … Makena Strong's 10 walks lead the Big Sky.

* Riley Peschek, at shortstop, and Presley Jantzi, in right field, are the only two players to start every game this season in the same position.

Upcoming: Montana will take next week off from games, then host North Dakota in a three-game series March 22-24. The start of league follows.

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Breiana Bonkavich

Grace Haegele

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Kynzie Mohl

Riley Peschek

Rylee Rehbein

Makena Strong

Kelly Sweyer

Madison Tarrant

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