Griz host Bears as homestand continues

The Montana softball team, on a six-game winning streak and off to an unbeaten start in league, will host Northern Colorado this week at Grizzly Softball Field as Big Sky Conference play continues.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2 p.m. Saturday's finale will have first pitch at noon.

The Grizzlies (11-22, 3-0 BSC) are on the back side of a 14-game homestand, which started with non-conference series against Pacific and Seattle.

Montana swept the Redhawks, then won three against Portland State over the weekend to extend its winning streak to six, the longest for the program since 2019.

The Grizzlies will host MSU Billings in a doubleheader starting at noon on Tuesday as the homestand concludes.

Northern Colorado is 16-19 overall, 2-1 in league after winning two of three over the weekend at home against Sacramento State.

Coverage: This week's games will stream on ESPN+ with Scot Gladstone calling Friday's doubleheader. Ace Sauerwein will be on Saturday's broadcast.

Storylines:

* This weekend is Bark in the Park. Information and printable waivers can be found at GoGriz.com/bark.

* Montana's six-game winning streak is its longest since the 2019 season. The longest winning streak in program history in eight, which the 2016, '18 and '19 teams all did once.

The team's current streak is the seventh time in program history the Grizzlies have won six or more games in a row.

* This is the fourth time in program history that Montana has started league with three consecutive wins. The Grizzlies also started 3-0 in 2016 (at UNC), 2018 (at ISU) and 2021 (at PSU).

All three of those teams lost their next league game, meaning a 4-0 start would be uncharted territory.

* Montana's three league wins through three games have already exceeded the number of Big Sky wins the last two Grizzly teams had combined. Montana went 1-14 in league in both 2024 and '25.

* With Saturday's two wins against Portland State, Montana assured itself of its first Big Sky series win since 2022. The Grizzlies had dropped their previous 19 league series.

Montana's last series win was a 3-0 sweep of Southern Utah in Cedar City in 2022 against a SUU team that would finish the season 3-40.

* With her stolen base in the bottom of the fifth in Sunday's 5-4 home win over Portland State, Anna Cockhill recorded her 36th career steal.

Gabby Martinez set the program record of 39 while playing from 2015-18. She stole 18 bases as a freshman, 13 as a sophomore, seven as a junior, one as a senior.

Cockhill set a single-season program record with 27 steals last season as a freshman.

* Grace Lopez was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, Carah Sweet the Big Sky Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday.

It was the first Player of the Week honor for Montana since 2024, the first Pitcher of the Week since 2022.

Lopez, who sat out the Seattle series, went 6 for 7 against Portland State with three walks for a .900 on-base percentage. She scored seven runs across three games.

Lopez had three doubles and a home run, giving her 12 total bases in seven at-bats for a 1.714 slugging percentage.

Sweet went 3-0 on the week with a 0.82 ERA over four appearances, winning twice against Seattle, once in relief, once as a starter, and collecting one win against Portland State.

Her win in the series opener against the Vikings was a complete-game shutout, a 5-0 Montana win. She allowed four hits and needed just 89 pitches to get through seven innings.

It was Montana's first complete-game shutout in more than two years, since Rylee Rehbein struck out 12 in a 2-0 win at CSU Bakersfield in February 2024.

Sweet has won her last three decisions and is now 3-5 on the season with a team-best 3.58 ERA. Montana hasn't had a pitcher with a sub-4.0 ERA for a full season since 2019.

* The Portland State series only continued Lopez's recent video-game numbers she's been putting up.

Over Montana's last four series, Lopez, who missed all three games against Seattle, is 19 for 30 over nine games with eight doubles, a home run and 13 runs scored.

They are all part of her current nine-game hitting streak. In seven of those nine games, she has had multiple hits, three times collecting three hits, four times finishing with two.

After ending the Saint Mary's series with a season batting average of .348, Lopez has upped it to .438 over her last nine games played, which ranks second in the Big Sky, 80th nationally.

* Montana's two losses before going on its six-game winning streak were one-run setbacks against Pacific, 9-8 and 13-12 defeats.

* Freshman Audri Elias got the save in Game 2 against Portland State, Kaiana Kong earned the save in Game 3.

Montana has four saves this season, already the second most in program history. The Grizzlies had seven saves in 2017.

* Montana is 10-0 this season when leading after the sixth inning.

* Montana is now 102-74 at Grizzly Softball Field. The Grizzlies won their 100th game at their home facility in the opener against Portland State.

* After hitting 12 home runs through the season's first 25 games, Montana has hit 10 over the last eight games to up its season total to 22. The Grizzlies hit 20 all of last season.

* Grace Lopez takes a nine-game hitting streak into the Northern Colorado series, Anna Cockhill an eight-game streak.

* Montana hit .311 in the Portland State series with the top five in the batting order staying consistent: Lopez, Saxton, Cockhill, Bekofsky, Christiaens.

At a glance (Northern Colorado):

* The Bears have known mostly success since coach Dedeann Pendleton-Helm took over the UNC program in June 2022.

* Northern Colorado won 53 games her first two seasons, in 2023 and '24, and twice advanced to the NCAA tournament by winning the Big Sky tournament title.

* The Bears won the Big Sky regular-season championship in 2024 and hosted last spring's league tournament.

* Northern Colorado was picked fourth out of six teams in this year's preseason poll, with four players earning preseason All-Big Sky accolades.

* Seniors Amailee Morales (first base), Krista Francia (shortstop) and Katie Walling (third base) were all voted preseason All-Big Sky.

* Morales was first-team All-Big Sky as a sophomore and junior, the Big Sky co-Player of the Year as a sophomore and the MVP of the Big Sky tournament.

* Morales is a .354 career hitter with 90 extra-base hits, including 31 home runs, 27 combined during her sophomore and junior seasons.

* Francia was first-team All-Big Sky last season, Walling the co-Newcomer of the Year after transferring to UNC from Seattle.

* Junior pitcher Anna Wilming, who is 8-6 with a 5.09 ERA and seven complete games, also was voted preseason All-Big Sky.

* Morales is a one-time Big Sky Player of the Week this season, senior Grace Algrim a one-time Big Sky Pitcher of the Week. Algrim is 3-4 with a 5.31 ERA.

* Northern Colorado is one of the Big Sky's top offensive teams, hitting .301 and averaging 4.6 runs per game with 96 extra-base hits. Morales is batting .430, senior Ella Gonzales .404 and Walling .390.

* The Bears have a team ERA of 5.97. Opponents are batting .338.

* Northern Colorado played a pair of wild non-conference games. The Bears scored nine runs in the bottom of the first against Creighton to go up 9-0 but would lose 20-11.

Eight days later, Northern Colorado lost 24-2 at home to South Dakota State, allowing 12 runs in the top of the first and giving up 24 runs in the opening four innings.

* Northern Colorado played a tightly contested three-game series at Pacific and won two of three, falling 4-3 and winning 3-1 and 5-4.

Pacific swept a three-game series against Montana in Missoula, putting up 31 runs.

* The Bears lost three times at home to Saint Mary's prior to the start of league, the team that swept Montana in Moraga.

* Northern Colorado had a head-turning series win at home over Sacramento State last weekend as the Bears opened league play.

Northern Colorado put up 19 runs against the Big Sky's top pitching staff and batted .360 for the series.

* Wilming went the distance in Game 1, an 8-5 UNC win. She threw a four-hitter in Northern Colorado's five-inning 9-1 win in Game 3. Morales hit a grand slam in Game 3.

* Northern Colorado gets three of its five Big Sky series at home, against Sacramento State, Idaho State and Weber State, the teams that made up the top three spots in the preseason poll.

Series history: Montana is 14-21 all-time against Northern Colorado. The Bears have won the teams' last nine match-ups while scoring 85 runs (9.4/g).

Montana is 8-7 in Missoula against Northern Colorado, with the Bears winning the last four games against Montana at Grizzly Softball Field.

Northern Colorado went 4-0 against Montana last season, sweeping the teams' series in Greeley, then ending the Grizzlies' season with 19-9 win in the Big Sky tournament.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Montana was the only league team to go unbeaten on opening weekend of Big Sky games.

* Idaho State won its first two at home against Weber State to extend its winning streak to seven games but the Wildcats took the finale 11-8.

* Other series this week are Sacramento State playing at Weber State and Portland State visiting Idaho State.

Upcoming: Montana will host MSU Billings for a doubleheader on Tuesday before playing eight straight on the road.

The Grizzlies will play Big Sky road series at Sacramento State and Weber State, with a midweek doubleheader at Utah on Wednesday, April 15. The Utes are rolling along at 25-11.

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Players Mentioned

Anna Cockhill

Audri Elias

Kaiana Kong

Grace Lopez

Carah Sweet

University of Montana Athletics