Griz close out home stand with Vikings, Senior Day

The Montana softball team will wrap up a 13-game home stand this weekend when it hosts Portland State at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The three-game series will be the final home games for the Grizzlies this season, with Sunday serving as Senior Day for Allie Brock, Elise Ontiveros, Riley Stockton and Kelly Sweyer.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m., with Sunday's finale scheduled to start at noon.

The Grizzlies will close out their regular-season schedule with a series at Sacramento State on Friday and Saturday, April 26-27.

The six-team Big Sky Conference Championship will open on Wednesday, May 8, in Pocatello, Idaho.

Coverage: All three games this weekend will stream on ESPN+ with Asher Lynde calling the action.

Where they stand (Montana): The Grizzlies are 16-26 overall and in last place in the Big Sky standings at 0-9, with winless series at Weber State and at home against Northern Colorado and Idaho State.

Last weekend at Grizzly Softball Field, Montana lost three times to Idaho State by a combined score of 23-1. The Grizzlies have been outscored in nine Big Sky games 72-20.

Montana snapped a six-game losing streak with 8-0 and 9-1 run-rule victories over Carroll on Tuesday afternoon at Grizzly Softball Field.

Where they stand (Portland State): The Vikings are 16-19 overall and in second place in the Big Sky at 5-3, one loss behind league leader Northern Colorado, which is 7-2.

PSU opened league with a surprising series sweep of Idaho State, played at neutral sites in Nampa and Boise, with all three wins coming by multiple runs.

The Vikings went 1-2 at home against Weber State, then went on the road last weekend and went 1-1 in a rain-shortened series at Sacramento State.

Portland State has a 2.16 ERA through eight league games and has held its Big Sky opponents to a batting average of .209.

What's at stake (Montana): The Grizzlies, who finished last in the Big Sky last season at 4-11, are seeking their first league win against the Vikings.

Montana has lost its last 12 Big Sky series and has won only two of its last 19 series against league opponents dating back to 2021.

The Grizzlies have not won a Big Sky series at home since 2019, losing 10 straight league series in Missoula while going 6-24 in those games.

What's at stake (Portland State): Picked fourth in the preseason poll, the Vikings have put themselves in position to compete for a Big Sky championship over the next two weekends.

While the Vikings are in Missoula this weekend, the league's two hottest teams, Northern Colorado and Idaho State, will be playing a series in Greeley.

Portland State will host Northern Colorado next weekend, the last of the regular season.

At a glance (Montana): Going into Tuesday's doubleheader against Carroll on a six-game losing streak, the Grizzlies picked up some much-needed momentum with a pair of run-rule victories.

Montana blanked the Saints 8-0 in Game 1, winning it with a six-run bottom of the second and a walk-off two-run home run by Hannah Jablonski in the bottom of the fifth.

It was Jablonski's first home run of the season, the fifth of her career and her second walk-off home run in a run-rule win over Carroll in two seasons.

Emmalyn Brinka, throwing her second complete game in five days, got the shutout victory, her first shutout as a Grizzly, on just 62 pitches.

In Game 2, a 9-1 victory in six innings, Carroll grabbed a 1-0 lead on a solo home run on the second pitch of the game, but it was all Montana after that.

The Grizzlies scored one in the first, six in the third and two in the sixth, the winning runs scoring on a two-run, walk-off triple by Riley Peschek, her second triple of the game.

It marked only the second time in program history that's happened. Delene Colburn had two triples in Montana's 14-8 win over Portland State at the 2016 Big Sky tournament in Ogden.

Rylee Rehbein, Grace Haegele and Nyeala Herndon all threw at least one inning as the Grizzlies held the Saints to four hits. Haegele got the win in relief, her sixth of the season.

After going 9 for 48 (.188) with runners in scoring position through its first nine Big Sky games, Montana went 9 for 17 against Carroll.

Jablonski went 3 for 5 in the series with four runs batted in and three runs scored.

At a glance (Portland State): The Vikings were just 3-14 after going 0-5 on a trip to Hawaii, but they've been playing lights out ever since, going 13-5 in their last 18 games.

That run of success began with a home sweep of Seattle, then continued with two 1-0 victories over Oregon State in a doubleheader and has extended into Big Sky play.

Redshirt junior pitcher Grace Kimball, who played her first three years at Boise State, has been electric in league, going 4-1 with a 0.97 ERA.

Her lone league loss came when she allowed one earned run in seven innings in a 4-2 home loss to Weber State.

The Vikings pair Kimball with senior pitcher Allicitie Frost, who has a 3.20 ERA on the season. She battled Sacramento State and Hornets ace Marissa Bertuccio to a 2-1 loss last Friday in Sacramento.

Kimball followed that with a complete game three-hitter in the Vikings' 5-0 road win in Game 2 of that series against the big-hitting Hornets.

First baseman Emily Johansen was the Big Sky Player of the Year last season. Second baseman Maddie Thompson joined Johansen on the All-Big Sky first team, with Frost earning second-team honors.

Portland State is batting .264 on the season and has the Big Sky's third-best ERA (3.25) behind Sacramento State (3.04) and Northern Colorado (3.19).

Freshman Lorraine Alo, from Hawaii, leads Portland State and ranks second in the Big Sky with a .416 batting average.

Kimball is tied for second in the Big Sky with 11 wins. Her 87 strikeouts rank third.

Series history: Montana is 19-10 all-time against Portland State, 8-4 in games played in Missoula in three-game series in 2016, '18, '19 and '22.

The Vikings have won the teams' last two series, winning two of three in Missoula in 2022 and two of three last season in Hillsboro.

In last year's series, Portland State rolled to 12-4 and 9-1 victories in Games 1 and 2 before Allie Brock pitched Montana to a 2-1 win in the finale, throwing a three-hitter.

When the teams met last May in the Big Sky tournament in Ogden, Olivia Grey threw a five-inning no-hitter as the Vikings ended the Grizzlies' season with a 13-0 victory.

Game notes:

* Big Sky softball RPIs as the postseason approaches (out of 307 teams): Sacramento State (93), Weber State (141), Northern Colorado (165), Idaho State (202), Portland State (214), Montana (286).

* Montana pounded out five doubles against Carroll and now ranks second nationally behind Texas Tech at 1.9 per game.

* The Grizzlies' 80 doubles are within six of matching the program record of 86 set by the 2019 team. … Montana's 13 triples rank second in program history behind the 17 from the 2019 season.

* Riley Peschek now has five triples this season, matching the program record set by Mercedes Bourgeau in 2015 and matched by Lexi Knauss in 2019.

* Peschek ranks 10th nationally in triples, Presley Jantzi ranks 36th in hits with 55. … Peschek, Jantzi and Hannah Jablonski rank 43rd nationally in doubles with 13 each.

* Jantzi is 4 for 18 the last six games, which has her batting average (.399) below .400 for the first time in more than a month. Only four times in program history has Montana had a .400 hitter for a season.

* Jantzi ranks fourth in the Big Sky in batting average and on-base percentage (.462), second in hits (55) and runs scored (32).

* Riley Peschek ranks seventh in the Big Sky in batting average (.358), third in slugging percentage (.650), fourth in RBIs (27) and runs scored (28).

* Peschek leads the team batting .436 with runners in scoring position. … Jantzi leads the team batting .456 with runners on base.

* Jablonski's big series against Carroll upped her batting average to .308, her highest average of the season.

* After matching a season high with three RBIs in Game 2 against Carroll, Peschek now leads Montana with six multiple-RBI games this season.

* Montana has an 8.98 ERA in nine league games this season, with opponents batting .367 and collecting 31 extra-base hits. … The Grizzlies are batting .219 through nine Big Sky games.

* Montana's last win against a Division I opponent was a 9-3 victory over North Dakota on March 23. That was also the last time the Grizzlies had 10 hits in a game.

* Montana is averaging 4.9 hits per game in league play. The Grizzlies had just eight in three games last weekend against Idaho State, the fewest ever for Montana in a Big Sky series.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* After opening league 0-2 with a pair of home losses to Sacramento State, Northern Colorado has won seven straight and sits atop the standings at 7-2.

* During their seven-game winning streak, the Bears are outscoring their opponents 52-14, including a home sweep of Weber State last weekend with wins by scores of 9-1, 3-2 and 8-0.

* Northern Colorado this weekend hosts Idaho State, a rematch of last year's Big Sky championship series when the Bears pulled out back-to-back 3-2 and 5-3 victories to make the NCAA tournament.

* Montana has played a league-high 19 home games this season. Idaho State has yet to play a home game but will host the Big Sky tournament next month.

* Sacramento State is 3-2 in league and has had four games weathered out, its entire series at Idaho State and last Saturday's home game against Portland State.

* The Hornets play a series at Weber State this weekend before hosting Montana next weekend.

Upcoming: Montana will close out the regular season next weekend at Sacramento State, then head to Pocatello in early May for the Big Sky tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Emmalyn Brinka

Allie Brock

Grace Haegele

Nyeala Herndon

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Elise Ontiveros

Riley Peschek

Rylee Rehbein

Riley Stockton

Kelly Sweyer

University of Montana Athletics