Griz drop tournament opener 7-5

Wednesday, May 8

Pocatello, Idaho

4 PM

Montana

17-32

(3) Sacramento State

27-18

Montana

Sacramento State

5/8/2024 10:34:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team punched above its No. 6 seed but couldn't deliver the knockout blow against No. 3 Sacramento State on Wednesday evening on the opening day of the Big Sky Conference Championship at Miller Ranch Stadium in Pocatello, Idaho.

The Hornets got a first-inning three-run home run from Big Sky co-Player of the Year Lewa Day and rallied back from a 4-3 deficit to win 7-5 and defeat the Grizzlies for the 11th straight time.

Sacramento State (27-18) advances to face No. 2 Idaho State on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Montana (17-32) drops into the elimination bracket and will face either No. 1 seed Northern Colorado or No. 5 Weber State at 2 p.m.

After falling behind 3-0 in the bottom of the first against Hornet starter Marissa Bertuccio, usually a hole few teams are capable of escaping when facing the two-time Big Sky Pitcher of the Year, the Grizzlies fought back like few would have expected.

Montana scored four runs on four hits in the top of the third, two of those on home runs against a pitcher who had allowed three all season entering the Big Sky Championship.

Riley Stockton got things started with a one-out single to center, the Grizzlies' first hit of the game. All four runs the Grizzlies would go on to score in the inning came with two outs.

Presley Jantzi drove in Stockton with a double to the fence in center, then Riley Peschek and Hannah Jablonski followed with back-to-back home runs to the same spot in left-center, both going down and golfing out of the ballpark pitches from Bertuccio that have usually worked against Montana.

Since the start of the 2022 season, Bertuccio had gone 6-0 against Montana with a 0.74 ERA. True, she got the win as well on Wednesday, but she had to work for it like few times before against the Grizzlies.

"We saw some things we weren't being successful with (in our series at Sacramento State two weekends ago) and spent the last week really honing in on what we had to do and taking a lot of pride in it," said coach Melanie Meuchel.

"I thought we applied it today and had a lot of confidence in what we were doing. Riley started it, then it got contagious. We saw it well, hit it well and played with a lot of confidence in each other."

The Hornets answered like one of the Big Sky powerhouse programs does in that situation, when a comfortable 3-0 lead suddenly becomes a very uncomfortable 4-3 deficit. They counterpunched.

Sacramento State scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the third on a pair of two-out doubles to retake the lead 6-4, a lead it would not give up the rest of the game.

Montana would score a run in the sixth against Bertuccio on an RBI single by Breiana Bonkavich to pull within a run, 6-5, but the Hornets would up their lead to two, 7-5, with a run in the bottom of the sixth before Savannah Wahl pitched the seventh for her third save of the season.

Montana, after failing to get to Bertuccio in the first two innings, had at least one hit in each of the final five innings and left five runners on over the final four.

The Grizzlies could only score one run on three hits in the top of the sixth and had two on in the top of the seventh when Wahl ended the game with a groundout.

Montana's five runs were the most the Grizzlies have scored against the Hornets since 2021.

"From pitch one, we were just totally determined that this was the time we were going to push through," said Meuchel. "We did the things we needed to and it was a very competitive game. We didn't finish it off but really had a ton of fight."

Jantzi, named second-team All-Big Sky on Tuesday, went 3 for 4 to up her batting average to .398. Jablonski had two hits, her 10th multiple-hit game of the season. Bonkavich went 2 for 3, her first career multiple-hit game.

Emmalyn Brinka (4-17) started and took the loss after giving up six runs in 2 2/3 innings. Grace Haegele struck out three and held the Hornets to one run over 3 1/3 innings.

No. 5 Weber State won Wednesday's first game 4-3 over No. 4 Portland State. The Wildcats face the top-seeded Bears at 9 a.m. on Thursday. Montana will face the loser in an elimination game on Thursday afternoon.

Montana went 0-3 against both Weber State and Northern Colorado during the regular season.

"Knowing your opponent is helpful but we know what we can do. We'll feed off our competitive drive from today and take that into tomorrow, no matter who we're facing," said Meuchel.