Griz drop thriller to Beavers

Saturday, March 22

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

7-23

Oregon State

13-13

Oregon State

Montana

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

3/22/2025 4:51:00 PM | Softball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

There are reasons for a short on-the-field meeting between coach and team after a game's end, some bad, some good.

Saturday at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula, coach Stef Ewing's meeting with her players lasted hardly any time at all. And it was for good reason. Very good.

"I told the team, sometimes you play really well and don't get the W, and we played really well today," said Ewing, whose team lost 3-2 to Oregon State in a game that was tight and tense from start to finish.

The teams traded runs in the first inning and runs in the sixth, the innings in between filled with pitchers stepping up in the moment, hitters making plays, both defenses going error-free on the afternoon.

The difference came down to the top of the seventh, Tristian Thompson's two-out single over the outstretched glove of Griz shortstop Anna Cockhill. The result came down to inches.

"We did everything we needed to do. We put ourselves in good opportunities to get the job done, and they put one more across than we did," said Ewing.

"I'll take that version of Griz Softball all day, every day."

All three of Oregon State's runs in the game came on hits with two outs or two strikes, the first a two-out home run in the top of the first off Griz starter Cameryn Ortega.

Montana wasted no time manufacturing the tying run in the bottom half of the inning.

Cockhill was hit by a pitch, then stole her program-record 19th base of the season. She advanced to third on a ground out, then scored on an RBI single by Presley Jantzi.

Cockhill's steal of second broke Gabby Martinez's single-season program record of 18, set in 2015. And it's only March 22. The program record for career steals is just 39.

"She is a kid who is going to shatter that record as she continues to do what she does on the bases and offensively," said Ewing.

"We said at the beginning of the year that she is going to be a special player at Montana. She has done a great job as a freshman and she's not done. She's just getting started."

After Ortega hit Oregon State's leadoff batter in the top of the second, Ewing was quick to go to Brianna Lachermeier, who pitched so effectively against the Beavers on Friday afternoon.

Lachermeier gave up four hits between the second and fifth innings but didn't allow a run.

She got out of a two-on, two-out situation in the second, a two-on, one-out jam in the third and faced just six batters over the fourth and fifth innings.

"She was super effective against them yesterday when she came in, so it was a no-brainer that she would be the first in relief today," said Ewing.

"We needed that. To hold that team to the amount of runs that she did and for the defense to make plays and manage runners behind her, that's what we need our pitchers and our defense to do."

It was Montana's seventh straight game of allowing five or fewer runs. During that stretch, the Grizzlies' ERA has dropped from 7.42 to 6.49.

After Jantzi's RBI single in the bottom of the first, Hannah Jablonski's double to right-center in the fourth was Montana's only other hit until the dramatic sixth inning.

Oregon State went up in the top of the sixth on back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning, both hits coming with two strikes. Lachermeier kept it a 2-1 game with a two-out strikeout with a runner on third.

Montana had the top of its lineup due up in the bottom of the sixth, and the Grizzlies' top hitters came through to tie the game.

Cockhill led off with a single up the middle and was sacrificed to second by Sveva Sweeney. She advanced to third on a ground out to second by Jantzi.

After Jablonski was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners, Madison Tarrant came through with a no-doubt two-out single to center to make it 2-2.

If Oregon State won it by inches in the top of the seventh, Grace Haegele, who followed Tarrant, nearly put Montana up in the bottom of the sixth, but her screamer to left was caught at shin level.

The Beavers broke the tie in the top of the seventh on Thompson's third hit of the day.

Montana made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Jocelyn Eisen was hit by a pitch with one out, but Ellie Garcia got an infield pop-up and a ground out to improve to 7-5 on the year.

The teams will wrap up their series with a game at 11 a.m. on Sunday.