Griz to face Northwest foes in Pocatello

The Montana softball team, coming off a multi-win road trip to Southern California, will travel to Pocatello this week for three games at Idaho State's Black and Orange Classic.

It will be the Grizzlies' toughest weekend to date, with three games against Washington and Boise State, both of which are receiving votes in this week's NFCA top 25 national poll.

Montana (5-15) will get two games against Washington (15-7), which is on a nine-game winning streak, and one against Boise State (15-5).

Host Idaho State (14-4) also is among those teams receiving votes in the national poll. Utah (6-15) will be the fifth team in the field in Pocatello this weekend.

All eight games of the tournament will be played at ISU's new-and-improved Direct Communications Field at Miller Ranch Stadium. The facility last summer was outfitted with synthetic field turf.

All eight games of the Black and Orange Classic will have coverage on ESPN+.

Montana next week will return to Southern California for a three-game series at San Diego. The games will be played at Del Norte High School on Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16.

The Grizzlies will make their home debut with a doubleheader against MSU Billings on Wednesday, March 19, with Game 1 starting at noon.

Schedule:

Saturday, 3 p.m. – vs. Washington (ESPN+)
Sunday, 10 a.m. – vs. Washington (ESPN+)
Sunday, 12:30 p.m. – vs. Boise State (ESPN+)

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies went 2-3 last weekend at CSUN's Champions Classic, picking up a pair of wins over Fairleigh Dickinson. It was Montana's first multi-win road trip of the season.

The Grizzlies dropped two games to the host Matadors and one to FDU.

On a weekend when Montana batted .176, it was the Grizzlies' pitching staff that kept them in four of the five games.

Montana's pitchers had a five-game ERA of 3.86. The Grizzlies arrived at Northridge with a season ERA of 8.27 and left with an ERA of 7.06.

Brianna Lachermeier went 2-1 at the CSUN Champions Classic with 2.19 ERA. She allowed 13 hits over 16 innings of work, 12 of those singles. The only extra-base hit she allowed was a double.

Montana opened with a 9-1 six-inning loss to CSUN on Friday before bouncing back with a 4-2 victory later that day over Fairleigh Dickinson, which was coming off a win over the Matadors.

On Saturday, the Grizzlies lost 4-0 to CSUN and 6-2 to Fairleigh Dickinson. In the former, the game was 0-0 going into the bottom of the sixth. In the latter, the game was tied 2-2 going to the seventh.

In Sunday's 6-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson, Montana scored once in the bottom of the first, three times in the second and once in the fifth and sixth innings.

It was the Grizzlies' first shutout of the season and their first shutout of a Division I opponent in more than a year.

Junior Breiana Bonkavich, who had six career hits going into the Champions Classic, went 4 for 9 in Northridge to lead the team. She also tied for the team lead with three runs scored.

Presley Jantzi had three hits, Madison Tarrant drove in a team-high three runs and Anna Cockhill scored three times.

Cockhill stole six bases in six attempts at Northridge, including three in Sunday's win over Fairleigh Dickinson, the most by a Grizzly in a single game since 2015. She is 12 for 13 for the season.

At a glance (Washington): The Huskies opened the season 6-7, three of those losses coming against ranked opponents, but have since gone 9-0, outscoring those opponents 73-10.

Washington went 32-15 last season, finishing fourth in the Pac-12 with a 13-10 league record. The Huskies advanced to the NCAA tournament, which they've done every season but once since 1994.

Washington lost 10 starters from that team and returned only two starters and two other letter-winners.

Among the 16 newcomers brought in by 21st-year coach Heather Tarr were nine transfers, including former Grizzlies Riley Peschek and Rylee Rehbein.

Peschek was first-team All-Big Sky Conference last season at shortstop as a freshman for the Grizzlies. Rehbein went 6-5 as a freshman last season with a 5.55 ERA.

Peschek has played in 16 games and made 14 starts this season. She is batting .189. Rehbein is 1-1 with a 2.69 ERA.

Washington opened the season going 2-3 at the Candrea Classic in Tucson, with two losses to No. 11 Alabama and one to No. 16 Arizona. The Huskies also lost a road game at Grand Canyon, 9-5.

Washington started its nine-game winning streak with a 10-0 five-inning win over UC Santa Barbara and added an 11-0 five-inning victory over CSUN, which twice defeated Montana last weekend.

The Huskies went 6-0 last week in Hawaii, the last two against the host school that holds an RPI of 91.

Washington, which is batting .284 on the season and has an ERA of 2.32, goes into the Black and Orange Classic with an RPI of 37.

Series history: Montana is 0-2 against Washington, both prior meetings coming when the Huskies held top-10 national rankings.

The Grizzlies lost 12-2 in five innings in Seattle in 2016 and 8-0 in five innings in 2017 in the NCAA tournament in Seattle, with Taran Alvelo no-hitting Montana.

At a glance (Boise State): The Broncos, who began playing softball in 2009, have won 108 games the last three seasons under fourth-year coach Justin Shults, who is 123-55 during his time at Boise State.

The Broncos won 40 games and finished second in the Mountain West in 2022, their first under Shults, and won the Mountain West in 2023 with a 16-5 league record.

Boise State went 36-23 last year and tied for fourth in league with a 13-9 record.

The Broncos went to the NCAA tournament in 2018 under coach Cindy Ball, now the head coach at Central Florida, and returned in 2019 under coach Maggie Livreri.

Boise State tied for second in this year's Mountain West preseason poll, tying with Fresno State and coming in behind favorite San Diego State.

The Broncos last week played at the Birds Up Bash in San Antonio and went 3-2, with a 9-8 loss to Houston and another loss to the Cougars, 15-11, in the championship game.

Boise State is batting .376 this season, which ranks ninth nationally.

Sophomore outfielder Sophia Knight, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 2024 and the 2025 Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, is batting .575, with 46 hits in 80 at-bats.

Senior outfielders Megan Lake (.426) and Mykenzie Hanna (.404) are both batting better than .400, while freshman first baseman Makenzie Butt is batting .397 with a team-high nine home runs.

Boise State, which has an RPI of 61, has hit 31 home runs, the 14th-highest total in the nation.

Series history: Montana is 1-5 all-time against Boise State. The teams have not played each other since 2018.

The teams have twice met in Boise, twice in Missoula and twice in 2018 in St. George, Utah.

Montana's lone win over Boise State was a 3-1 victory at Grizzly Softball Field in 2017 behind eight strikeouts by Michaela Hood.

The Broncos won the first game of that doubleheader 4-3, scoring two runs with two outs in the top of the seventh to take the lead.

Montana notes:

* Anna Cockhill is 12 for 13 in stolen base attempts this season, Nebraska the only team to get her out.

She is only the third Grizzly to ever steal 10 bases in a season. Gabby Martinez swiped a program-record 18 in 2015 and 13 more in 2016. MaKenna McGill had 14 steals in 2016.

* The Grizzlies, 12 for 12 last weekend in stolen bases, are 23 for 28 as a team on the season. The program record is 47, set in 2016. Montana stole nine bases in 2023, 18 last season.

* Kynzie Mohl made her season debut last week and had a pair of hits, including a double against CSU Northridge as a pinch hitter in her first at-bat of the season.

She started the final four games in Northridge, three at catcher, one at designated player.

* Hannah Jablonski and her .308 batting average did not play in last weekend's tournament. Makena Strong started all five games at first base in Jablonski's place.

Strong had her first two career doubles last weekend, drove in two and scored two runs.

* Presley Jantzi led off the tournament with a home run in the top of the first in Montana's first game. It was her second of the season, the sixth of her career.

* Montana ranks fifth out of six teams in the Big Sky in batting average (.239) and ERA (7.06).

* The Grizzlies committed three errors in five games last weekend, with three error-free games. They had 26 errors through their first 15 games, only two of those 15 games error-free.

* Montana's fielding percentage of .944 ranks fourth in the Big Sky.

* Anna Cockhill leads the Big Sky in walks (12) and hit-by-pitches (5). She also leads the league in stolen bases.

* Presley Jantzi is tied for fourth in hits (22), one off the Big Sky lead.

Upcoming: Montana will travel to San Diego next week for a three-game series.

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Players Mentioned

Breiana Bonkavich

Anna Cockhill

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Brianna Lachermeier

Kynzie Mohl

Riley Peschek

Rylee Rehbein

Makena Strong

Madison Tarrant

University of Montana Athletics