Great expectations: Montana opens exhibition schedule

It would have been a mix of emotions on the team bus in May, when the Montana softball team traveled back to Missoula from the Big Sky Conference Championship in Pocatello.

On one hand, a team that wasn't expected to do much, at least outside of their own locker room, played Idaho State on the final day of the regular season, one more win giving the Grizzlies what would have been their first-ever regular-season championship.

The next week in Pocatello, they didn't just snap an eight-game postseason losing streak. Montana won three times and was a play or two from rallying past Sacramento State and into the championship series.

On the other hand, there were no trophies won, despite being in a position Montana hadn't been in for nearly a decade. On the bus ride home, the feel-good narratives were balanced out by thoughts of what could have been.

And everyone started to look ahead, knowing last year's team had just one senior. That future is now, as Team 13 caps its fall work with two weekends of exhibition games at Grizzly Softball Field.

Montana will host Black Hills State for a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday, North Idaho for a doubleheader at noon on Sunday.

Two weekends later, the Grizzlies will host MSU Billings and Carroll, on Oct. 24 and 25. All eight games are free to the public.

"We talk about it all the time, in the weight room, in conditioning, at practice. We've worked really hard to get here and it hasn't been enough. None of what we accomplished last year is what we wanted, so what does that mean?" says third-year coach Stef Ewing, last year's Big Sky co-Coach of the Year.

"It means we have to do more, and this group has really embraced that. I ask them to empty the tank and they do. It's now the players who are saying, this is how we do things around here. It's no longer the coaches having to say what the standard is."

All those returning players, mixed with a talented freshman class and a speedy transfer, has made for a combustible environment, the good kind, since the team started fall practices after Labor Day. Comfort has been replaced by competition. No spot is safe, so best to bring your A game every single day.

"There is competition every single day in practice. No one can afford to take a day off or even a rep off," added Ewing, who would want it no other way. "No one can get complacent. You have to stay relentless and get better every single day. At times, I've had to pull this group back a little bit."

Montana's offense was record-breaking last season – doubles, home runs, slugging percentage – and almost all the players who helped produce those numbers are back. Then there are the players who sat out last season for a variety of reasons. Then there are the newcomers.

Over last season's final 29 games, Montana hit .337 and averaged more than six and a half runs per game. That peak should simply be the starting point for this year's team, one that might break just about every offensive record there is.

"It's going to be fun to watch us on offense. It's going to be electrifying and exciting," said Ewing. "They swing it."

While Montana's offense will be improved, its pitching should be as well. The players who threw all 343 innings last season are back, joined by a pair of decorated freshmen.

They are working under the watchful eye of first-year pitching coach Jayline Sloss, who joined Ewing's staff in August.

"It's been fun to see the pitchers coming out of the bullpen really excited after working with Jayline," said Ewing. "There is a new energy, a new excitement in that area that we've been able to see in our fall scrimmages.

"Really, really good things going on in the circle and that starts with Kaiana (Kong) and Carah (Sweet) coming back and having a year of experience under their belts."

Freshman Makenna Burton will make it three pitchers who will eat up the innings this weekend, against Black Hills State and North Idaho. The rest of the staff, like a chunk of the team, is dealing with things, some minor that might have them debuting in two weeks, some more major.

"We've got some kids pretty banged up," said Ewing. "There are some familiar names you won't see out there this fall. We're being really careful with some injury stuff. We're going to rotate a lot of kids.

"The goal for this weekend is to get a list of things we need to work on and get better at. That's what the fall games are all about. We need to make some mistakes, swing at some bad pitches so we can really dial it up when we focus on the things we need to do better."

Returning to Ewing's staff is assistant coach Marc Kendrick, with Makena Strong moving from graduate assistant to full-time assistant. Sloss makes it four and for a full and lively table when the staff meets each morning to plan out the practice ahead.

After ballooning to 7.88 in 2025, Montana's ERA deflated to 6.01 last season, good enough for the Grizzlies to win 22 games overall and tie for second in the Big Sky at 9-6 after four straight seasons of sixth-place finishes.

If Sloss can get that number to 5.01 or something that starts with a four (or dare we dream: three), look out.

Too much plate. Too much plate. Too much plate. It's been on repeat from Sloss in the bullpen this fall as she eyes her charges. "They've bought into that," said Ewing. "She is pushing them and making them better. You can see it in the way they're competing.

"What she doesn't yet realize is she was born to coach. I show up to our staff meetings at 9 a.m. and ask what the pitchers are doing and she has it all laid out. She's ready to go, every single day. I'm excited to see how they throw this weekend against other teams."

So many of the names you already know: First-team All-Big Sky shortstop Anna Cockhill, second-teamers Grace Lopez, JoJo Christiaens and Sweet, Big Sky Freshman of the Year Kailee Mejia. Plus Bekofsky, Cherms, Tarrant, Boer, Gutierrez, Graviette, Kiblen.

Then there is Ward, Nelson, Allred, Barney and Sweeney. Ortega, Braun, Elias. Plus transfer Briona Ferdman and the five freshmen. That's more names than spots available, again, just the way Ewing likes it.

"I love the competition we have every day at practice," she said. "There are some battles that are just fun to watch. It's fun to give this team a task and watch them go.

"I tell them all the time, you're not just trying to beat out the person who's playing your position. You're trying to be the best at that position against everybody else in the conference, everybody else we play."

The season will finally arrive in February, the start of league play in late March, everything pointing toward May and the Big Sky Championship, again being held in Pocatello.

Then: the bus ride home. And who knows what that might be like?

"Did you leave last year satisfied or did you leave last year with a chip on your shoulder," Ewing asked her team at the start of fall practices. It was the latter. Now, one season later, they want it all.

It's nothing new. Ewing has been talking about winning championships, plural, since the day she was hired. Seemed bold, even overly so. Nobody thought it was going to come to fruition as quickly as it did, so close at the end of Year 2. Now it's become the expectation, spoken into existence.

"You have to be able to talk about it before you can do it," she says. "I don't say anything to say it. I say it to mean it, and I've taught the team that. We have the expectation to win the conference, win the conference tournament and try to make a push in (an NCAA) regional."

That's the bus ride she wants to take. You aboard?

Great expectations: Montana opens exhibition schedule

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Players Mentioned

JoJo Christiaens

Anna Cockhill

Grace Lopez

Kailee Mejia

University of Montana Athletics