Griz set fall schedule

Fans of the Montana softball program will have plenty of opportunities this fall to check out the new-look Grizzlies of second-year coach Stef Ewing, whose roster underwent a significant makeover after last season.

Ewing's 26-player team will have 16 newcomers, 14 of those freshmen, plus a pair of transfer pitchers. Of the team's 10 returners, eight of them are underclassmen in eligibility, with Chloe Saxton the team's lone senior for the season ahead.

Montana will play its full allotment of eight exhibition games this fall, starting with the two-day Griz Fall Classic on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4 and 5, with Montana getting four games against MSU Billings, Carroll and Dawson Community College.

After a road trip to Utah, with games against Utah State on Saturday, Oct. 18, and Utah Valley on Sunday, Oct. 19, Montana will close out its fall schedule with a home doubleheader against North Idaho on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The team will hold Maroon and Gray scrimmages on Sunday, Sept. 28, and Sunday, Oct. 12, with both games starting at 8 a.m., and will hold occasional Friday scrimmages as well throughout the fall season.

"I wish we had practice today," said Ewing, who will have to wait until next Tuesday for small-group work. The full team won't practice together for the first time until Sunday, Sept. 14.

"It's an exciting time for us because we have a lot of new faces. As a coach, you get excited when you recruit kids and they finally get here. Now we finally get to work with them, and our returners are eager to get back as well."

Last year in late August, Ewing was in her first month on campus and meeting most of her new players for the first time ahead of fall practices.

"I have a better plan of attack this time around," she said. "Last fall it was, okay, let's learn who we have, then figure out what we can do. Now we know who we have, so let's get them out there and figure out where the pieces best fit."

That's going to be a problem, the best type of challenge for Ewing, whose newcomers mostly have slashes on the position portion of the roster, meaning they have the skill set to play multiple spots on defense.

For years, Montana has had a one-player, one-position make-up. Now: An infielder who can also play the corner outfield spots? Check. That's going to unleash some interesting dynamics at Grizzly Softball Field in the weeks ahead.

"It's going to be figuring out what the right combination is," Ewing said. "There is going to be a ton of competition, with battles every day in practice. That's what you want. That's how you get better as a team and that's how players grow, when you have someone pushing you at your position."

The first outside competition of the fall will be the Griz Fall Classic, seven games over two days in early October, with Montana playing four of those. All four teams that will be competing will be from the state.

"We want to continue to grow the game in Montana and have events where people can come watch college softball," said Ewing. "It's great for fans to be able to see not only us but other teams from Montana as well."

Outside of learning all the new names and faces, fans will need to get used to a new style of play as Ewing continues building the type of roster – fast, fast, fast, go, go, go – that syncs up with her vision of how she wants her program to compete.

"I think people will notice that we'll play a lot more station-to-station softball, moving runners, hitting behind runners, hitting and running," said Ewing, who gave then-freshman Anna Cockhill the green light to steal a program-record 27 bases last season in 32 attempts.

Cockhill last season had the same number of stolen bases Montana had in 2023 and '24 combined as an entire team. The Grizzlies' 42 stolen bases last season were the second-most in program history, five off the program record.

"We're definitely going to steal more bases. Anytime you have someone like Anna Cockhill, you have a player who is going to light up the scoreboard in that category. Now we've added more speed."

The position that underwent the biggest overhaul was pitcher. Of the players who pitched Montana's 293 innings last season, only Cameryn Ortega returns.

Ewing and pitching coach Megan Casper mined the transfer portal in May and June and emerged with a pair of gems in rising junior Kaiana Kong (Western Washington) and sophomore Carah Sweet (Sacred Heart).

Nyeala Herndon, who redshirted last season after pitching 17 2/3 innings as a freshman in 2024, is back. The freshmen pitchers are Brooklynn Braun (Las Vegas, Nev.), Audriana Elias (Sahuarita, Ariz.) and Makinzie Nelson (Hailey, Idaho).

"We're really excited about the pitching that we brought in, with three freshmen and two coming in from the portal," said Ewing. "We're going to look very different in the circle."

For the first time since hosting Washington in the fall of 2016, Montana will play exhibition games against Division I opponents, traveling to play Utah State and Utah Valley in mid-October.

"We felt it was important to go on the road this fall and do a bus trip to allow everyone to feel what it's like to travel as a team before we hit the ground running in the spring," said Ewing.

"We appreciate our (non-Division I) games but there is going to be a tick up in the pitching quality that we're going to see when we play Utah State and Utah Valley. It will be good for us to see where our hitters are against those opponents and where our pitchers are."

Montana will conclude its eight-game fall schedule with a home doubleheader against North Idaho on Oct. 25. If the weather allows, the team will put a bow on its fall with a best-of-three Griz World Series, "but I know better than to play weatherman in Montana at the end of October," Ewing said.

The team will kick off the fall semester this Labor Day weekend with an off-campus retreat. "We have so many new faces, we want to start getting everyone together," said Ewing. "It's a big fall for us.

"This is a group that's hungry. Our goal is to have intense battles in practice every day and get this team to come together quickly. We know we're going to be young, but so what?

"We talk about it all the time: Big Sky championships. That's why we're here. That's what our goal is. We know it's a big mountain to climb. We're ready to climb it."

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brooklynn Braun

Anna Cockhill

Audriana Elias

Nyeala Herndon

Kaiana Kong

Makinzie Nelson

Cameryn Ortega

Chloe Saxton

Carah Sweet

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