Griz close out regular season against Hornets

The Montana softball team will wrap up its regular-season and Big Sky Conference schedule this week with a road series at Sacramento State.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 1 p.m. (MT), a single game on Saturday, also starting at 1 p.m. (MT). The three-game series will be played at Sacramento State's Shea Stadium.

The Grizzlies won't play again until Wednesday, May 8, their first game of the double-elimination Big Sky Championship in Pocatello, Idaho.

Coverage: All three games this week will be available on ESPN+ with live stats also available.

Series summary: Coming off a weekend series against Portland State in which it picked up its first Big Sky win, Montana travels to Sacramento State to face a team that has historically given it more fits than any other in the league.

The Grizzlies are just 6-25 all-time against the Hornets, who annually have one of the Big Sky's top pitching staffs. And 2024 is no different.

Led by Marissa Bertuccio, the Big Sky Pitcher of the Year in both 2022 and '23, Sacramento State leads the league in ERA once again at 3.23.

If the Hornets win the Big Sky ERA title this season, it will be for the fifth time in the last seven years. The two outliers? Sacramento State finished second.

Facing Bertuccio and her pitching pals will be a Montana offense that ranks last in the Big Sky in batting average (.266) and is averaging only 5.25 hits per game through 12 league contests.

The Grizzlies have been outscored in their dozen Big Sky games 93-35, with their opponents batting .357, leaving Montana with a league ERA of 8.68.

The biggest Hornet bat belongs to Lewa Day, who is batting .324 with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs.

The series matches the team with the Big Sky's best RPI against the team with the lowest. Sacramento State is at 97, Montana is at 287 out of 307 Division I teams.

Where they stand (Montana): The Grizzlies sit in last place in the six-team Big Sky standings. Montana is 17-28 overall, 1-11 in league. The rest of the Big Sky is all .500 or better.

Where they stand (Sacramento State): The Hornets, who had their entire series at Idaho State weathered out and their finale at home against Portland State rained out, is fifth in the Big Sky at 4-4 in league. Their overall winning percentage of .561, from a 23-18 record, is the best in the Big Sky.

What's at stake (Montana): The Grizzlies, at 1-11 in league, will take the No. 6 seed into next month's Big Sky tournament for the second consecutive season. They could pick up some needed momentum this week against a team that is 1-5 in its last six games with just seven runs scored.

What's at stake (Sacramento State): The Hornets, who were looking like the team to beat, went into a late-season swoon last year, losing their last three Big Sky games to fall into a share of the regular-season title, then going 0-2 in the tournament for a disappointing finish to the season.

After going 1-5 in its last six games, four by shutout, Sacramento State, which was 22-13 overall and 3-1 in league just 12 days ago, is trying to avoid the same thing happening in 2024.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies picked up their first Big Sky win of the season on Saturday evening, run-ruling Portland State 9-1 in five innings in Game 2 of the teams' three-game series in Missoula.

The series came after Montana was swept in three-game series against Weber State, Northern Colorado and Idaho State.

The Grizzlies dropped Game 1 by a score of 9-3, then used a six-RBI game from Kynzie Mohl to run-rule the Vikings in Game 2, ensuring that Southern Utah, which went 0-18 in league in 2022, will still be the only team in Big Sky softball history to go through league without a win.

Mohl added a three-run home run in the bottom of the first in Game 3, giving her nine RBIs over three consecutive at-bats – two three-run home runs and a bases-loaded triple – but Portland State hit three home runs to power its way to an 11-3 six-inning victory in the finale.

Mohl went 3 for 7 in the series with a slugging percentage of 1.571 after hitting two home runs and a triple. She turned that production, plus a two-run double against Carroll in a midweek sweep of the Saints, into her first career Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honor on Monday.

Presley Jantzi went 4 for 10 against Portland State to leave her season average at .399 as she tries to become only the fourth player in program history to hit .400 or better for a season.

Grace Haegele picked up Montana's lone win in the series, pitching a five-inning complete game in Game 2, allowing four hits while striking out four. It was her fourth complete game of the season, her first against a Division I opponent since Feb. 16.

Hannah Jablonski hit two doubles in the series, giving her a team-leading 15 for the season, a total that is tied for 24th nationally and is the sixth-highest total in program history, six off the program record of 21 held by Cami Sellers (2019) and Delene Colburn (2015).

By going 1-2 against Portland State, Montana has lost its last 13 Big Sky series and has won only two of its last 20 series against league opponents dating back to the 2021 season.

At a glance (Sacramento State): The Hornets shared last year's regular-season title with Idaho State at 10-5 but only after the Bengals went to Sacramento on the final week of the season and swept a three-game series from a Hornet team that had been 10-2 in league.

Sacramento State then gave up 19 runs in two games to go 0-2 at the Big Sky tournament, completing an end-of-season reversal.

The Hornets were picked third in this year's preseason poll, getting a first-place vote and coming in behind Idaho State and Northern Colorado.

They have the Big Sky's best body of work, including wins over Michigan and BYU, and a 3-2 win at then No. 9 Stanford, a game Bertuccio pitched a complete-game six-hitter on 92 pitches.

The league schedule has failed to provide Sacramento State any consistency. After winning two of three at Northern Colorado for a strong start, the Hornets had their entire series at Idaho State weathered out.

They split a home doubleheader against Portland State before seeing the finale of that series get rained out.

Finally getting another full series at Weber State last weekend, Sacramento State got swept and shut out in the opening doubleheader, losing 5-0 and 8-0 in five innings.

The Hornets won the finale 4-3 in nine innings, with Jenna Birch, a transfer from Oregon State who was making her first pitching appearance of the season, throwing a complete game on 209 pitches.

Sacramento State has a team batting average of .278, which ranks second in the Big Sky. The Hornets have just 54 extra-base hits in 41 games, the fewest in the Big Sky.

Day and Malissa George have combined to hit 14 of Sacramento State's 15 home runs this season, with Day's 35 RBIs ranking second in the league.

Alexis Parish is batting .387, an average that ranks fourth in the Big Sky.

Bertuccio has been fantastic. Again. She is 11-7 with a 1.94 ERA and 15 complete games with two shutouts. She has 105 strikeouts against only 30 walks. She has 61 career wins, 5-9 career strikeouts and a career 2.46 ERA.

Series history: Montana is 6-25 all-time against Sacramento State and has lost seven straight against the Hornets, scoring only eight runs in those seven games.

The Grizzlies are 2-11 against the Hornets at Shea Stadium with seven straight losses. Montana's last win at Sacramento State came in 2017.

The Hornets have dominated the teams' last two series. At Sacramento in 2022, the Hornets went 3-0, outscoring the Grizzlies 12-2. In Missoula last year, the Hornets outscored the Grizzlies 17-2 on their way to a three-game sweep.

Montana's last win against Sacramento State was a 5-0 victory at the 2021 Big Sky tournament in Ogden, Utah.

Game notes:

* Montana hit five doubles against Portland State and now ranks first in the nation in that statistical category at 1.89 per game. The Grizzlies rank 24th in triples per game (0.31).

* Jantzi, at .399, ranks 80th nationally in batting average. Jablonski ranks 24th in doubles with 15, Jantzi and Riley Peschek are 38th with 14. Jantzi ranks 41st in hits (59), Peschek is 16th with five triples.

* Peschek's five triples are tied for the most in program history with Mercedes Bourgeau (2015) and Lexi Knauss (2019).

* Montana has hit 14 triples this season, second most in program history behind the 17 hit by the 2019 team.

* Jantzi ranks first in the Big Sky in hits (59), second in runs scored, third in batting average (.399). Peschek ranks third in slugging percentage (.636).

* Kynzie Mohl has hit three home runs in April. She is tied for the team lead with Peschek with four for the season.

* Montana is 1-22 this season when scoring four or fewer runs, 16-6 when scoring five or more. The Grizzlies are 1-20 this season against teams with an RPI of 218 or better.

* Mohl's six RBIs in Game 2 against Portland State were one off the program record of seven, set by Lexie Brenneis in 2015. They were the most RBIs in a game for Montana since 2017.

* Hannah Jablonski is on a career-high five-game hitting streak.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Northern Colorado and Portland State are tied atop the Big Sky standings at 7-4. They play a three-game series in Hillsboro, Ore., on Friday and Saturday.

* Third-place Idaho State (5-3 BSC) hosts fourth-place Weber State (7-5 BSC) on Friday and Saturday.

* The Bengals, who host the Big Sky tournament next month, are playing their home opener on Wednesday against Boise State.

* If no make-up games are played, only Montana and Weber State could play all 15 of their scheduled league games this season. Idaho State and Sacramento State may only play 11 of 15.

* The six-team Big Sky tournament will open in Pocatello on Wednesday, May 8. If the schedule mirrors last year's tournament at Weber State, No. 6 Montana will play the No. 3 seed at noon.

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Players Mentioned

Grace Haegele

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Kynzie Mohl

Riley Peschek

University of Montana Athletics