Griz head south for pair of tournaments

Friday, February 13

Las Cruces, N.M.

10 AM

Montana

Oklahoma

2/12/2026 11:10:00 AM | Softball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team, off to a 3-2 start through one weekend of tournament games, will travel to Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, Texas, this week for five games across two tournaments.

The Grizzlies (3-2) will face No. t4/4 Oklahoma (3-1) on Friday at 10 a.m. and New Mexico State (3-3) at 4 p.m. at NMSU's Troy Cox Classic in Las Cruces.

Montana will travel 50 miles south and play a doubleheader against UTEP (3-3) on Saturday in El Paso with games scheduled for 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. as part of the Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament.

The Grizzlies will wrap up their weekend with a second game against New Mexico State at noon on Sunday back in Las Cruces.

Coverage: Montana's first four games of the weekend, against Oklahoma, New Mexico State and twice against UTEP, will have streaming on ESPN+. All five games can be monitored via live stats.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies opened the season winning three of five games last week at the La Jolla Invitational at UC San Diego. Montana split games with Saint Louis and Wagner and defeated the host Tritons.

The Grizzlies batted .297 over five games and had an ERA of 4.53. It's a small sample size but it's a big early improvement from last season when Montana batted .227 and had an ERA of 7.88.

G1: Saint Louis 11, Montana 9 – The Billikens went up 2-0 two batters into the game on a home run and the Grizzlies never caught up. A five-run top of the sixth proved to be the difference.

JoJo Christiaens had the first multi-hit game of her career, driving in two, while Grace Lopez scored three times.

G2: Montana 2, Wagner 1 – The Grizzlies opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the fourth, the Seahawks tied it in the top of the sixth, Montana won it in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk.

Junior Kaiana Kong, a transfer from Western Washington, picked up her first win as a Grizzly in relief.

G3: Montana 9, Saint Louis 0 – The Grizzlies shut out an opponent for the first time since winning 7-0 at Portland State last April 12 and posted their largest-ever margin of victory in a shutout of a Division I opponent.

Montana pounded out 14 hits to match last season's single-game high.

Anna Cockhill went 3 for 5 with four runs batted in. She hit two home runs to double the number she had last season as a freshman.

Her four RBIs were the most for a Grizzly against a Division I opponent since Kynzie Mohl had six in a 9-1 victory over Portland State in 2024.

Audri Elias allowed four hits over six innings to get her first collegiate win.

G4: Wagner 6, Montana 0 – Seahawks left-hander Karson Zavala allowed two hits in a complete game while striking out nine.

Wagner had only seven hits, all singles, but stacked them together at the right times, scoring one in the first, five in the second.

G5: Montana 10, UC San Diego 5 – Coming off a two-hit game and facing the unbeaten Tritons, the Grizzlies scored five runs in the top of the first on six hits and never trailed.

Five players had multiple hits, with Grace Lopez going 4 for 5, Montana's first four-hit game since Presley Jantzi had four in an 8-7 loss at New Mexico State in 2024.

The Grizzlies scored 10 runs in the victory and nine players had an RBI.

Cameryn Ortega started and got the win, allowing four hits over 4 1/3 innings.

The win improved Montana to 3-2, the first time the Grizzlies have been above .500 after the opening weekend since 2022 and for only the fourth time in program history.

Montana notes:

* Grace Lopez went 10 for 17 at the La Jolla Invitational, scoring a team-high six runs and going 5 for 5 on stolen base attempts. Lopez had nine hits and scored four runs all of last season as a freshman.

* Lopez went 9 for 12 over the final three games of the La Jolla Invitational.

* Also making a big sophomore jump was Mackenzie Bekofsky, who went 7 for 15 on opening weekend. She had five hits in 40 at-bats as a freshman.

* Another sophomore splash: JoJo Christiaens hit three doubles in La Jolla. She had three extra-base hits as a freshman.

* The Grizzlies hit three home runs on opening weekend, two coming off the bat of Cockhill, one from Bekofsky. Montana hit 20 last season in 50 games.

* Montana's staff had a WHIP of 2.24 last season. Last weekend: 1.29. The Grizzlies held their opponents in La Jolla to a .246 batting average and seven extra-base hits.

* The Grizzlies are 1-20 all-time against ranked opponents, the lone win a 5-0 victory at No. 23/23 Arkansas in 2020. Montana most recently faced a ranked opponent last season when it played Nebraska in Las Cruces.

* Montana scored nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings in five games in La Jolla. The Grizzlies scored nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings in 50 games last season.

* Montana is playing Oklahoma for the second time in program history. The Sooners defeated the Grizzlies 4-0 in 2018 on opening weekend in Phoenix.

Michaela Hood and Tristin Achenbach limited Oklahoma to eight hits. That Sooner team lost to Washington in the national semifinals at the Women's College World Series.

* Montana is 0-4 all-time against New Mexico State, all on NMSU's home field, while allowing 33 runs. The Grizzlies' first-ever game, in 2015, was an 8-0 loss at New Mexico State.

* Montana is 1-3 all-time against UTEP, all four games on UTEP's field, the Miners scoring 32 runs. The Grizzlies' only win was 5-2 in 2021.

At a glance (Oklahoma): The Sooners, who have won eight national championships, seven since 2013, are 3-1 after opening the season in Arizona last week.

A 2-1 victory over Arizona State was followed by a 2-1 series against No. 17/18 Arizona. After losing 11-6 in the opener, Oklahoma won 21-3 in five innings and 5-4.

Five Sooners made the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List, four were named to the Preseason All-SEC team.

Oklahoma was picked second in the preseason SEC poll behind defending national champion Texas.

The Sooners went 52-9 last season and returned eight position starters and two pitchers from a team that lost to Texas Tech in the Women's College World Series semifinals.

Oklahoma, under 32nd-year coach Patty Gasso, batted .376 over its first four games of the season and hit 15 home runs.

Sophomore left-hander Audrey Lowry pitched 15 of last week's 24 2/3 innings. She went 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA.

At a glance (New Mexico State): The Aggies opened their season at home last week and went 3-3 with wins over UMass Lowell, UT Arlington and Utah Valley.

NMSU hit a robust .376 through its first six games, scoring 48 runs, but opponents batted .404 and scored 65, leaving the Aggies with an ERA of 7.62.

New Mexico State went 30-25 last season, its final under long-time coach Kathy Rodolph, who won more than 800 games in her collegiate coaching career. She took the Aggies to four NCAA tournaments.

Benet Higgs, formerly an assistant coach, is serving as interim head coach in 2026.

New Mexico State was picked eighth out of 12 teams in the Conference USA preseason poll.
Senior outfielder Devin Elam was voted to the preseason all-league team.

At a glance (UTEP): Like New Mexico State, the Miners are 3-3 after opening at home last weekend. They swept a doubleheader from UT Arlington and defeated Utah Valley.

Also like the Aggies, UTEP can swing the bat – 41 runs scored on .327 hitting – but has struggled to slow down opposing offenses. The Miners allowed 57 runs on .335 hitting to their first six opponents. They have an ERA of 9.05.

UTEP went 22-28 last season, 18 of those wins coming at its own Helen of Troy Softball Complex. The Miners tied for 10th in the Conference USA preseason poll.

Upcoming: Montana will head to Phoenix next week for Grand Canyon's Purple Classic.