Bats stay quiet, Griz fall 4-0

Saturday, February 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

10:30 AM

Montana

4-9

San Diego

6-7

San Diego

Montana

2/21/2026 7:23:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team lost for the third time in three games at the Purple Classic in Phoenix, falling 4-0 to San Diego on Saturday morning at GCU Softball Stadium.

After losing 9-4 to UC Santa Barbara and 8-0 to Grand Canyon on Friday, the Grizzlies were shut out for the second consecutive game for the first time this season against the Toreros.

Facing Kaitlyn Bartlow, who threw a complete-game three-hitter, Montana had 15 fly outs, four strikeouts and only two ground outs.

"Offensively it wasn't a good day for us," said coach Stef Ewing. "We really struggled to make adjustments. We were talking about it constantly but we were not able to do it.

"It was a lot of rise balls and curve balls. We had some loud outs but we were consistently under the ball all day long. A lot of easy, routine fly outs."

The game started well enough, with freshman starter Brooklynn Braun facing three batters in the top of the first and Anna Cockhill leading off the bottom half of the inning with a base hit.

Her single to right extended her hitting streak to eight, the longest for Montana since Presley Jantzi's 10-game streak in 2024.

But after stealing second, Cockhill was stranded. Montana had someone reach second base just four times in the game.

Mackenzie Bekofsky had a double in the fourth, Madison Tarrant a double in the fifth and Danielle Biehl got on in the seventh and advanced to second on a passed ball.

"All weekend we've struggled offensively. It hasn't been a good representation of what this team can be offensively," said Ewing.

Braun got into trouble in the second, allowing the game's first run before turning the ball over to Cameryn Ortega with the bases loaded and nobody out.

Ortega got a critical strikeout, then an RBI ground out and a fly out to left to hold San Diego to just two runs and a 2-0 lead.

Ortega mostly rolled through San Diego's lineup until the Toreros added two insurance runs in the top of seventh on a pair of hits and a sacrifice fly.

Ortega finished with four hits allowed over six innings. "Cam threw a gem," said Ewing. "When our pitchers hold a team to four runs, we should be in a position to come out on the right side of things."

Montana will get two chances to pick up its first Purple Classic win on Sunday. The Grizzlies will face North Florida at 9 a.m., Grand Canyon at 2:30 p.m.