Big Sky opens with Vikings visiting Missoula

Saturday, March 28

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

Portland State

Photo by: TOMMY_MARTINO

3/26/2026 5:02:00 PM | Softball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana softball team, riding a three-game winning streak, will open its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when it hosts Portland State for a three-game series at Grizzly Softball Field in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (8-22) and Vikings (10-19) will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. Sunday's finale will have first pitch at noon.

The series will be games seven, eight and nine of Montana's 14-game homestand. The Grizzlies will host Northern Colorado on Friday and Saturday, April 3 and 4, then welcome MSU Billings to town for a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 7.

Coverage: This weekend's series will stream on ESPN+ with Asher Lynde calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies opened their long homestand with three losses to Pacific, the last two being one-run decisions, before sweeping Seattle in a three-game series Monday and Tuesday.

The Grizzlies hit .313 in the Seattle series with a 3.67 ERA to win games by scores of 7-5, 6-5 and 6-2.

Mackenzie Bekofsky had five hits in the series and drove in four, as did Anna Cockhill and JoJo Christiaens. Carah Sweet went 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA over 7.0 innings of work. Cameryn Ortega went 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 6.0 innings.

It's Montana's first three-game winning streak since 2024. The series sweep was the first at home for the Grizzlies since winning three games against Northern Colorado in 2019.

At a glance (Portland State): Much like Montana, the Vikings spent February and the first half of March on the road, playing tournaments in Fullerton, Calif., Tempe, Ariz., Honolulu, Boise and Los Angeles.

Portland State opened its home schedule last Friday with a bang as senior pitcher Sherreigh Nakoa-Chung no-hit a now 22-11 North Dakota team as the Vikings won 1-0 on a walk-off throwing error in the bottom of the seventh.

On Sunday and Monday, PSU hosted WCC favorite Santa Clara. The Broncos won 5-2 in eight innings in the opener, with the Vikings following with a 4-1 win behind a complete game from Gracie Walters. Santa Clara won the finale 5-2.

Portland State is hitting .250 for the season and has scored 103 runs over 29 games (3.6/g) with 38 extra-base hits, all those statistics ranking last in the Big Sky.

The Vikings have a 5.37 ERA, which ranks third in the Big Sky.

Redshirt senior Grace Johnson is batting .425, with 36 of her 37 hits this season going for singles. She has driven in six. Junior Breanna Lutz, in her first year at PSU after playing two seasons at Palomar (Calif.) College, is batting .303.

Nakoa-Chung and Walters have thrown more than 70 percent of Portland State's innings this season. Walters is 3-5 with a 3.71 ERA, Nakoa-Chung is 5-6 with a 4.00 ERA. They have combined to throw 11 complete games.

Coach Meadow McWhorter is in her 10th year leading the Vikings.

Series history: Montana leads the series with Portland State 21-14 but has not won a series against the Vikings since 2021. The Grizzlies are 9-6 at home against the Vikings.

Portland State won two of three against Montana in their series in 2022, '23, '24 and '25. The Grizzlies' last series win was a three-game sweep in Portland in 2021.

Montana notes:

* Montana's series sweep of Seattle improved its all-time record at Grizzly Softball Field to 99-74. One more win will give Montana 100 at what has been the Grizzlies' home since the program started in 2015.

* Montana will try to reverse its recent history of results in the Big Sky. The Grizzlies went 1-14 in league in both 2024 and '25 and 0-2 at both Big Sky tournaments.

Dating back to the tail end of the 2023 season, Montana is 2-36 in its last 38 games against league opponents, counting the regular season and postseason.

Montana has dropped 19 straight Big Sky series, the Grizzlies' last series win a three-game sweep at Southern Utah in 2022.

* Montana's eight wins through 30 games matches the Grizzlies' wins total all of last season, when they finished 8-42.

* Sophomore Grace Lopez missed the Seattle series after wielding a big bat against Santa Clara and Pacific in Montana's previous six games.

Lopez went 13 for 23 against the Broncos and Tigers with five multiple-hit games to up her season batting average to .404. Lopez has had a season average north of .340 since opening weekend.

Lopez leads Montana with 11 multiple-hit games this season. She's had six two-hit games, four three-hit games and one four-hit game. She is currently on a six-game hitting streak.

* Freshman Kailee Mejia, on the mend from an injury through the season's first 27 games, made her Griz debut against Seattle and looked anything but overwhelmed. She looked poised, confident and ready.

She had a sacrifice fly in her first collegiate game and had her first hit, a single up the middle, in Montana's 6-2 win on Tuesday in the series finale.

Mejia made two starts at first base, one at second.

* Senior Chloe Saxton is on a career-best nine-game hitting streak. She is 10 for 29 during the streak with a team-best nine runs scored.

Half of her hits – three doubles, two home runs – have gone for extra bases.

Montana's last 10-game hitting streak came from the bat of Presley Jantzi in 2024. The Grizzlies have not had a streak of more than 10 games since Maygen McGrath closed the 2021 season with a streak of 19.

* Montana's power numbers have spiked year over year. The Grizzlies had 83 extra-base hits in 50 games last season, with 20 home runs.

The calendar has not yet reached April and this year's team already has 75 extra-base hits and 18 home runs.

After hitting 37 and a program-record 43 home runs in 2021 and '22, respectively, Montana had 21 in 2023 and 20 in both 2024 and '25.

* During the team's first six games of the homestand, Mackenzie Bekofsky has gone 8 for 22 (.364) with two doubles, two home runs and a team-high eight runs batted in.

* Montana won when trailing after three innings for the first time this season on Monday, when the Grizzlies rallied from a 4-0 deficit to win 6-5. Montana had been 0-20 previously in that scenario.

* Five is the magic number for this team. Montana is 8-2 when holding its opponent to five or fewer runs, 0-20 when the opponent scores six or more.

* Chloe Saxton has scored eight runs the last five games. … Kaiana Kong picked up a three-pitch save in Tuesday's 6-2 win over Seattle, setting down the game's final two batters. … Two of Madison Tarrant's three multiple-hit games this season came in the final two games of the Seattle series when she went a combined 4 for 5. … Sophomore Mackenzie Bekofsky has six career multiple-hit games. Three of those have come in Montana's last five games. … Anna Cockhill had an eight-game hitting streak in February. She enters league on a five-game hitting streak with eight hits in Montana's last seven games. … Cameryn Ortega has cut nearly two runs off her ERA from her freshman (7.18) to sophomore (5.22) season. … Forty-nine times in program history a player has had four or more RBIs in a game. The latest: Brianna Gutierrez, who had four in Montana's 13-12 loss to Pacific on Sunday. … Cockhill has been hit by a pitch nine times this season, more than twice as many times as any other Big Sky player this season.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Sacramento State and its league-best 2.32 ERA is off to a 21-11 start. The Hornets open their Big Sky schedule this weekend at Northern Colorado.

* Idaho State, which has scored 70 more runs this season than any other Big Sky team, courtesy of 41 home runs, is the Big Sky preseason favorite. The Bengals open league hosting Weber State.

Upcoming: Montana will host Northern Colorado next Friday and Saturday.