Griz make their home debut

After playing its first 26 games of the season on the road, the Montana softball team will make its home debut this week with five games over five days at Grizzly Softball Field.

The Grizzlies (5-21) will host MSU Billings (8-14) in a doubleheader on Wednesday starting at noon, then welcome Oregon State (11-12) for a three-game series that will be played Friday through Sunday.

The Grizzlies and Beavers will play at 3 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday.

Montana will open its Big Sky Conference schedule next week when it plays a series at league preseason favorite Northern Colorado in Greeley.

Coverage: All five games this week will have streaming through ESPN+. Andrew Houghton will call the week's first four games. Ace Sauerwein will be on the broadcast on Sunday for the OSU series finale.

Montana's final 22 games of the regular season will have streaming options available.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies enter the week on a six-game losing streak after going 0-3 at the Black and Orange Classic in Pocatello two weeks ago, then 0-3 at San Diego last weekend.

After getting shut out three times in four games, Montana wrapped up its series at San Diego on Sunday afternoon with a 5-4 loss on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh.

After falling behind the Toreros 3-0 after three innings, the Grizzlies scored one in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it 3-2, then added two runs in the top of the sixth to even the score at 4-4.

San Diego won it with a walk-off solo home run on the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh.

Montana had plenty of opportunities against the Toreros but left 20 runners on base across three games while going 3 for 26 with runners in scoring position.

Montana batted .159 in the series, its season batting average of .220 ranking fifth out of six teams in the Big Sky, 277th nationally out of 300 NCAA Division I teams.

Sveva Sweeney went 2 for 3 at San Diego, Madison Tarrant and Breiana Bonkavich also had a pair of hits in the series, with Tarrant driving in two of Montana's four runs.

Grace Haegele, Brianna Lachermeier and Cameryn Ortega each threw between 5 and 6 2/3 innings in San Diego and gave Montana a chance with a 5.44 ERA for the series.

That lowered the team's season ERA from 7.42 before the series to 7.19 after. That ranks fifth in the Big Sky, 287th nationally.

Montana fielded .988 at San Diego, with one error in 80 chances. The Grizzlies' season fielding percentage of .948 ranks fourth in the Big Sky.

Montana notes:

* Grace Haegele, who missed the season's first four weekends due to injury, made her pitching debut at the Black and Orange Classic in Pocatello two weeks ago, throwing 1 2/3 innings.

She threw five innings in Sunday's opening game of a doubleheader at San Diego and also hit in the No. 7 spot, her first collegiate at-bats.

In her first collegiate at-bat, in the top of the second, Haegele singled to right. She batted clean-up as the designated player in Sunday's second game.

* Anna Cockhill leads the Big Sky in walks (16), hit by pitches (6) and stolen bases (15).

She is 15 for 17 in stolen base attempts this season, already only three behind the program record of 18, set by Gabby Martinez in 2015. Cockhill's total is the second-highest in program history.

Between 2017 and last season, Montana's leader in stolen bases did not exceed eight.

* Montana is 26 for 32 in stolen base attempts this season, already the fifth-highest total in program history. The season record of 47 was set in 2016.

* Madison Tarrant had a pair of RBI doubles in Sunday's 5-4 loss at San Diego. She has a team-high seven doubles on the season, a total that is tied for third in the Big Sky. She had four as a freshman last season.

* Cockhill has started all 26 games this season at shortstop. She is the only Montana player to start at the same position every game this season. She also has batted leadoff all 26 games.

* Cockhill has scored 16 of Montana's 75 runs this season, more than one-fifth of the team's total. She has scored twice as many runs as the next Grizzly on the list.

* Presley Jantzi, with nine, leads Montana in extra-base hits. Tarrant has eight, Cockhill and Hannah Jablonski have six.

* Montana has allowed its opponents to hit 29 home runs this season. The Grizzlies have hit six.

* Montana is 94-62 all-time at Grizzly Softball Field but hasn't had a winning record at home since the 2019 season, when the Grizzlies went 16-3.

Over the last four seasons, Montana is nine games under .500 at home.

At a glance (MSU Billings): The Yellowjackets are 8-14 overall but have won five of their last six.

MSUB swept a home doubleheader against Black Hills State last Wednesday, then took three of four at home against Simon Fraser over the weekend in its first Great Northwest Athletic Conference series.

The Yellowjackets have not been shut out this season, have put up 44 runs in their last five games and are batting .316 on the season with 62 extra-base hits, including 23 home runs.

Sophomore Bryn Lucht is batting .431 on the season with eight home runs. She ranks second in the GNAC in batting average and leads the league in home runs and slugging percentage (.931).

Junior Marleigh Nieto is batting .426, which ranks third in the GNAC.

The Yellowjackets defeated Black Hills State 2-0 last week but otherwise have given up at least three runs every game this season, 11 times giving up 10 or more.

The team's ERA of 8.55 ranks last in the GNAC by more than two runs.

MSU Billings went 9-38-1 a year ago, 2-22 in league games. The Yellowjackets were picked seventh out of seven teams in this year's preseason poll.

After last season, Lisa McKinney, MSUB head coach for 10 seasons, stepped down. Joe Yegge, formerly the head coach at NCAA Division II Missouri Western, was hired as her replacement in July.

Series history: Montana and MSU Billings will be playing for the first time in the regular season on Wednesday. The teams met in Billings last fall during the exhibition season.

Upcoming: Montana will host Oregon State later this week, the Grizzlies' final games before getting into league play next week at Northern Colorado.

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Players Mentioned

Breiana Bonkavich

Anna Cockhill

Grace Haegele

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Brianna Lachermeier

Cameryn Ortega

Sveva Sweeney

Madison Tarrant

University of Montana Athletics