Aggies score early, top Grizzlies

Monday, February 17

Las Cruces, N.M.

1 PM

Montana

2-9

New Mexico State

8-4

Montana

New Mexico State

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

2/17/2025 5:00:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

New Mexico State scored seven times in the bottom of the first inning and rode that fast start to an 11-0 victory over Montana on Monday afternoon in Las Cruces, N.M.

It was the last of six games over four days for the Grizzlies (2-9), who played twice in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, then four times at New Mexico State's Troy Cox Classic on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

After Montana went down in order in the top of the first on Monday, the Aggies (8-4) jumped out to an early lead.

New Mexico State's first three batters drew walks. The fourth hit a bases-loaded double to make it 3-0. Montana pitchers would walk six in the first inning while allowing three run-scoring hits.

"We weren't able to throw strikes. We have to be able to keep those crooked numbers as low as we can," said coach Stef Ewing, who used pitchers Grace Hardy and Brianna Lachermeier on Monday.

The only other available pitcher, Siona Halwani, threw in four of Montana's first five games on the road trip.

"Being down a pitcher and playing this many games, we felt it by the end of the weekend," said Ewing.

"We've got some injuries and some other things going on, but this group continues to stick together and battle."

New Mexico State led 7-0 after one, then added four runs in the bottom of the third, the final three runs of the game coming on Desirae Spearman's seventh home run of the season.

Spearman, the Conference USA Player of the Year as a freshman last season, was also the Aggies' starting pitcher.

She faced just 13 batters over her four innings of work, allowing a two-out single to left to JoJo Christiaens in the third.

"The kid's a special player," Ewing said of Spearman. "Her windup is a little different than anyone we've seen. It took our hitters some time to get comfortable in the box off of her."

Facing Aggie pitcher Taryn Bennett in the top of the fifth, Jessica Stanfield had a one-out single up the middle, Mackenzie Bekofsky a two-out single up the middle.

Montana was held to three hits for the game. "We weren't able to put some quality at-bats together until the end," said Ewing.

"This was a tough weekend for our team. We faced a lot of adversity. We really grew from that and stuck together."

Montana opened the road trip with a convincing win over Manhattan. The Grizzlies dropped road games at UTEP and at New Mexico State, and lost twice to No. 18 Nebraska.

"When you compare this weekend to last weekend, we did a lot of things better," said Ewing. "We're just trying to get a little bit better each weekend and make sure we're learning from our mistakes.

"We've got to stick with it. Now we have to get home for some quick preparations before we go down to Bakersfield."

Montana will play four games on Friday and Saturday against Pacific (3-5) and CSU Bakersfield (7-5) at CSUB's Kathy Welter Classic.