Griz get shot at Big 12 Utes

The Montana softball team will take a break from its Big Sky Conference schedule and play a doubleheader at Utah on Wednesday afternoon.

The Grizzlies (15-26) and Utes (27-15-1), who knocked off No. 1 Texas Tech on Saturday, will play two games starting at 3 p.m. at Utah's Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City.

The teams have played just one time previously, a 5-2 victory for No. 17/16 Utah in St. George in early March 2017, a season that saw both teams make the NCAA tournament.

Montana, which plays a three-game series at Weber State on Friday and Saturday, is tied for second in the Big Sky at 5-4, one game behind league leader Idaho State with two weekends of games to go.

Utah is in seventh in the strong 11-team Big 12 at 5-9-1. The Utes played to a 2-2, nine-inning tie at No. 25 UCF 10 days ago on getaway day.

Coverage: Wednesday's doubleheader will stream on ESPN+ with Bill Riley calling the action.

Montana storylines:

Streak-busting continues: When Montana opened its series with Portland State with two wins (on the way to a sweep), it assured the Grizzlies their first Big Sky series win since 2022.

Montana had lost 19 straight Big Sky series before winning its series against Portland State.

The two wins against the Vikings in their first two league games gave the Grizzlies as many Big Sky victories as they had over the previous two seasons combined, when they went 1-14 in 2024 and '25.

When Montana opened its series against Northern Colorado with a 10-0, six-inning win, it snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Bears.

When Montana opened its series at Sacramento State last weekend with a 9-6 win, it snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Hornets. It was Montana's first win in Sacramento since 2017.

Sweet keeps it rolling: Sophomore Carah Sweet was 0-5 with a 5.38 ERA on March 22. She has won six of her last seven decisions to improve to 6-6. Her ERA has dropped to 4.25.

Her six wins are the most since Grace Haegele won seven games in 2024. Haegele's were the most since Allie Brock and Dana Butterfield both won 10 games in 2022.

Stolen-base record on high alert: Gabby Martinez set the program record for career stolen bases when she collected 39 in the first four years of the program, from 2015 to '18.

Sophomore Anna Cockhill stole a program-record 27 bases last season as a freshman and has added 10 more as a sophomore. She needs two more to match Martinez's record, three to break it.

Power numbers surge: Montana hit only 12 home runs over the season's first 25 games. Now the Grizzlies are hitting the ball like they want to break the single-season program record.

Montana has hit 21 home runs over the last 16 games, seven times hitting multiple home runs after doing that only three times through its first 25 games.

The Grizzlies' 33 home runs are the fourth-most in program history and only 10 behind the single-season record of 43, set by the 2022 team.

Last weekend, Montana faced a Sacramento State staff that had allowed only 11 home runs in 38 games. The Grizzlies got to the Hornets for four home runs, including three in one inning in Game 1.

Average surging as well: After Montana was shut out by Pacific on March 21 in the first game of a 14-game homestand, the Grizzlies were batting .242 on the season.

That average is now up to .283, which would be Montana's highest since batting .290 in 2022. The Grizzlies are hitting .336 through nine Big Sky games.

The Grizzlies have scored five or more runs in 14 of their last 16 games and are averaging 5.0 runs per game for the season, up from 3.0 in 2025.

Cockhill continues to carry hot bat: Anna Cockhill had her 12-game hitting streak come to an end in Montana's 9-1, five-inning home win over MSU Billings last week.

It was tied for the sixth-longest hitting streak in program history and Montana's longest since 2021.

Cockhill started another streak last weekend, getting a hit in all three games at Sacramento State, giving her a hit in 15 of Montana's last 16 games.

Grand slams aplenty: JoJo Christiaens hit Montana's 16th grand slam in program history on April 4 in the Grizzlies' 14-10 home loss to Northern Colorado.

Six days later, Brianna Gutierrez hit a grand slam in Montana's 9-6 win at Sacramento State, No. 17 in program history.

This the fifth season in program history when Montana has had multiple grand slams in the same year.

Mejia, marvelous: When freshman Kailee Mejia was sitting out Montana's first 27 games recovering from a broken foot, coach Stef Ewing kept saying that one of her team's top bats wasn't in the lineup.

So true. In Mejia's first 14 collegiate games, she has batted .400. She goes into the Utah doubleheader on a six-game hitting streak, with multiple hits in three of those six games.

Mejia hit her first home run as a Grizzly against MSU Billings last week and is 5 for 12 (.417) with runners in scoring position.

Saxton loves Shea Stadium: Chloe Saxton, the team's only senior, is coming off a huge weekend at the plate at Sacramento State.

Saxton went 7 for 13 with two doubles, a triple and a home run. Her three hits in Game 3 was the first three-hit game of her career. She had multiple hits in all three games.

Saxton went to Sacramento with a batting average of .283. She returned home with an average of .314.

Three-dot notes: Montana has the second-most extra-base hits (115) in the Big Sky behind league leader Idaho State. The Grizzlies had 83 extra-base hits last season. … Montana ranks 19th nationally with 76 doubles. … Grace Lopez ranks fifth in the Big Sky in batting average (.395). Lopez is tied for third in runs (35), is fourth in on-base percentage (.467) and is tied for fourth in doubles (13). … Cockhill ranks fifth in home runs (9) and RBIs (34). Cockhill's nine home runs are the most for Montana since 2022.

At a glance (Utah):

* The Utes began playing softball in 1976, 39 years before Montana had a team, and has more than 1,400 all-time wins.

* Amy Hogue is in her 19th year as head coach. She played at Utah (1991-94) and was a graduate assistant (1995) and assistant coach (1997-99) for the Utes as well.

* Utah has been to 18 NCAA tournaments and four times has advanced to the Women's College World Series, in 1985, '91, '94 and '23.

* Utah went 13-40 a year ago, its fewest wins in a season since 1977, but returned seven starters and 14 letter-winners from that team. The Utes have already more than doubled last season's wins total.

* Utah was picked 10th of 11 in this year's Big 12 preseason poll and, like Montana in the Big Sky, didn't have any players make the Big 12 preseason team.

* Utah's year-over-year jump has come because of its work in the circle, where the Utes have an ERA of 2.83, which ranks 24th nationally. Utah's ERA last season was 5.04.

* Sophomore left-hander Hailey Maestretti is 9-5 with a 2.27 ERA, junior right-hander Shelbee Jones is 10-6 with a 2.31 ERA. Senior right-hander Raci Miranda has seven wins and a 3.41 ERA.

* Utah's staff has thrown 16 complete games and has 13 shutouts to rank seventh nationally.

* Offensively, Utah is hitting a healthy .303 and has hit 47 home runs. Freshman Mia Gomez is hitting .397 with nine home runs. Sophomore Kennedy Proctor is hitting .341 with 24 extra-base hits.

* Utah has four wins this season over ranked opponents, three coming in a road sweep of No. 21/22 Arizona State.

* On Saturday, Utah won 4-0 at home over No. 1 Texas Tech, with Maestretti throwing a complete-game, five-hit shutout, the Utes' first win over the nation's top-ranked team since 2017 (Arizona).

* Utah is 5-6 at home this season. Three of those losses came against No. 21 Oklahoma State, by a total of four runs, two came against No. 1 Texas Tech.

* Utah's only other Big Sky opponent this season has been Weber State, which the Utes faced once in St. George, once in Salt Lake City and once in Ogden.

Utah won all three games in five innings by a combined score of 39-1. The Wildcats managed just eight hits off the Utes over three games.

Series history: Montana and Utah have played just one time previously, in 2017 in St. George.

Delene Colburn hit a two-run home run in the top of the first for Montana and the game was tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the sixth when Utah scored three runs to win 5-2 and improve to 12-2.

Montana would end that season in the NCAA tournament at the Seattle Regional.

Utah would host and win its own regional in 2017, then go to Seattle for Supers and drop two of three to Washington with a trip to the Women's College World Series on the line.

After the teams split the first two games, Washington pulled out a 2-1 win in the finale.

Upcoming: Montana will travel north to Ogden and resume its Big Sky schedule with a Friday-Saturday series at Weber State.

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Players Mentioned

JoJo Christiaens

Anna Cockhill

Brianna Gutierrez

Grace Haegele

Grace Lopez

Kailee Mejia

Chloe Saxton

Carah Sweet

University of Montana Athletics