Griz head to California for Kathy Welter Classic

The Montana softball team, with 11 games played through two weeks of the season, will head to California this week for CSU Bakersfield's Kathy Welter Classic.

The Grizzlies (2-9) will get two games against Pacific (3-5) and two against the host Roadrunners (7-5).

Montana will return to California next week for the CSUN Champions Classic, hosted by CSU Northridge, part of 26 straight games on the road for the Grizzlies to open the season.

Montana is one month out from playing its home openers, a doubleheader against MSU Billings at Grizzly Softball Field on Wednesday, March 19.

Schedule:

Friday, 10:30 a.m. (MT) – vs. Pacific
Friday, 3:30 p.m. (MT) – at CSU Bakersfield
Saturday, 10:30 a.m. (MT) – vs. Pacific
Saturday, 1 p.m. (MT) – at CSU Bakersfield

Coverage: All four of Montana's games can be tracked through live stats. Friday afternoon's game against the Roadrunners will stream on ESPN+.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies won their season opener two weeks ago, defeating Colgate 11-4 at the GCU Kickoff Classic.

Montana added win No. 2 as it opened play last weekend at UTEP, topping Manhattan 13-3 in five innings.

As part of its challenging early-season schedule, Montana lost twice to now 10-2 Grand Canyon, twice to now 8-2 Nebraska and in true road games at UTEP and New Mexico State.

Montana is hitting .290, an improvement for a team that batted .242 in 2023 and .262 last year, but the Grizzlies' ERA of 9.37 ranks 276th nationally out of 287 Division I programs.

None of the four pitchers Montana has used this season, had pitched in a Division I game prior to this season.

At a glance (Pacific): The Tigers are 3-5 with all three of their wins coming on the road last weekend against CSU Northridge.

Pacific has a Montana-like .295 team batting average but only has 11 extra-base hits through its first eight games, while its opponents have 27.

The Tigers have an ERA of 6.21. Opponents have batted .353 against five Pacific pitchers.

Pacific went 17-36 a year ago, tying for fifth in the six-team West Coast Conference with a 6-10 league record. The Tigers were picked last in this year's preseason coaches' poll.

History: Montana is 2-4 all-time against Pacific, including a 5-4 win in the teams' most recent match-up, last season at Grand Canyon. A day earlier, the Tigers defeated the Grizzlies 10-5.

The teams played twice on Pacific's home field in 2015. Their last four match-ups have come at neutral sites.

At a glance (CSU Bakersfield): The Roadrunners went 5-46 a year ago and ended the season with an RPI of 296 out of 307 Division I programs.

What a difference a year has made under now second-year coach Letty Olivarez.

With seven wins in 12 games, CSU Bakersfield has already eclipsed last season's wins total and will enter the Kathy Welter Classic on a five-game winning streak.

The Roadrunners have outscored their last five opponents 52-14, including a 14-6 win over Sacramento State. They also have a 4-0 win over Illinois this season.

Freshman Maalia Cherry is batting .421 and has five home runs and 16 RBIs, all team highs.

CSU Bakersfield has a team ERA of 4.28 and is holding opponents to a .289 batting average.

Headlining the staff is junior Bailee Bustos, in her first year at CSUB after transferring from College of the Sequoias. She is 5-2 with a 1.31 ERA and a .217 batting average against.

The Roadrunners were picked to finish 10th out of 10 teams in the Big West Conference preseason coaches' poll.

History: Montana is 4-6 all-time against CSU Bakersfield, with the Grizzlies going 2-1 against the Roadrunners at last year's Kathy Welter Classic.

The teams' first seven meetings all were at neutral-site locations before playing three times last year at the Roadrunner Softball Complex.

Montana notes:

* Presley Jantzi, who batted .393 as a junior, is batting .424 this season. She has just a single strikeout in 33 at-bats.

She opened the season on a six-game hitting streak and has a hit in nine of Montana's first 11 games this year, with four multi-hit games.

* Hannah Jablonski, who drove in 16 runs last season, is batting .357 through 11 games and leads the team with 11 RBIs and five extra-base hits.

In six games last weekend at UTEP and New Mexico State, Jablonski went 8 for 14 with eight RBIs and four extra-base hits.

Jablonski hit her first home run of the season, the seventh of her career, on Saturday against Nebraska. Her three-run shot gave Montana a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning against the Cornhuskers.

* Madison Tarrant, who batted .228 last season as a freshman, is hitting .346 as a sophomore, the third-highest average on the team. She already has three multi-hit games, matching last season's total.

* Freshman Anna Cockhill is batting .333 in the leadoff spot and leads the team with eight runs scored.

Cockhill hit her first collegiate home run against Nebraska on Sunday, pulling Montana even at 2-2 in the top of the second inning.

* Jantzi followed Cockhill's home run with a solo shot of her own, Montana's first multi-home run game of the season. The Grizzlies had six multi-home runs games combined in the 2023 and '24 seasons.

* Two other freshmen, Grace Lopez (.308) and Sveva Sweeney (.300), are batting .300 or better.

* Montana is batting .256 this season with the bases empty, .353 with runners in scoring position and .415 when leading off an inning.

* Jantzi ranks second in the Big Sky in hits (14), Jablonski is tied for second in RBIs (11).

* Grace Hardy and Siona Halwani lead the Big Sky in appearances with seven.

Upcoming: Montana will play CSU Northridge (2-7) twice and Fairleigh Dickinson (0-5) three times next week at the CSUN Champions Classic.

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Players Mentioned

Anna Cockhill

Siona Halwani

Grace Hardy

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Grace Lopez

Sveva Sweeney

Madison Tarrant

University of Montana Athletics