Vikings power to 11-3 win in finale

Sunday, April 21

Missoula, Mont.

Noon

Montana

17-28, 1-11

Portland State

18-20, 7-4

Portland State

Montana

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn/University of Montana

4/21/2024 5:00:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Portland State hit three home runs and had five extra-base hits to power its way to an 11-3 win in six innings over Montana on Sunday afternoon at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

After the teams split their doubleheader on Saturday, the Vikings hit their way to the series win, scoring in five of six innings in Sunday's finale.

Portland State scored twice in the top of the first and added four more in the top of the second to build a 6-3 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Montana senior centerfielder Elise Ontiveros, while at-bat, suffered an injury that put the game on pause for more than 20 minutes.

Ontiveros was attended to first by both teams' athletic trainers, later by EMTs before being wheeled off the field on a gurney.

It was an incident that affected every person in attendance, the players on both teams even more so, intimately familiar as they are with the inherent dangers in the sport.

It was the Grizzlies, understandably, who were affected the deepest, one of four seniors they had honored not long before, now lying on the turf, surrounded by medical professionals.

After taking a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the first on a three-run home run by Kynzie Mohl, Montana had just one hit over the final five innings, present in body if not fully in spirit.

Everything that would have been needed to mount a comeback, particularly focus, was no longer in the Montana dugout. Rather, it was with Ontiveros.

"When our players saw a teammate go down, I think our minds and our hearts were in that direction," said coach Melanie Meuchel. "It felt like we didn't catch any ground after that.

"I think our emotions were in a space that we just didn't recover from it as we're thinking of Elise. Then it just kind of got away from us."

Montana started Grace Haegele, the pitcher who held Portland State down in Game 2's 9-1 run-rule victory on Saturday evening.

The Vikings loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first and would score twice while leaving the bases loaded.

In the bottom half of the inning, Presley Jantzi and Hannah Jablonski both had singles, setting up Mohl to do what she'd been doing all weekend. Her towering home run to left made it 3-2.

Her home run gave her nine RBIs in three at-bats, after hitting a three-run home run and a bases-loaded triple in her final two at-bats in Game 2.
The Vikings had back-to-back home runs in the top of the second as they retook a 6-3 lead.

Chloë Saxton's leadoff double in the bottom of the fifth was Montana's only hit after Ontiveros's injury.

Portland State scored twice in the fourth on a two-run home run, twice in the fifth and once in the top of the sixth on back-to-back doubles that made it 11-3.

Haegele (7-9) allowed five runs in 2 1/3 innings. Emmalyn Brinka and Rylee Rehbein both pitched in relief.

Grace Kimball, who won Game 1, pitched her second complete game of the series to improve to 12-8. She threw a four-hitter while striking out seven.

Montana (17-28, 1-11 BSC) will wrap up its regular-season schedule on Friday and Saturday with a series at Sacramento State (23-18, 4-4 BSC).