• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

Montana's home 2023 home opener vs. Carroll... Impressions

grizzlyjournal

Well-known member
Despite chilly temps, Montana's double-header sweep of Carroll College (9-1 & 7-5) was well-attended and the games enjoyable. Junior Allie Brock pitched a solid first-game win and got 9 hits & balanced offensive support from a young team playing without senior center fielder Julie Phelps. Brock limited the Saints to one hit while soph rf Presli Jantzi hit a 3-run triple and soph 1b Hannah Jablonski hit a 2-run walkoff homer (her first of 2) in the bottom of the 5th.

The second game was of more interest to me because sr. pitcher Maggie Joseph -- still recuperating from injury last season -- pitched very well through 4 innings, limiting the Saints to 1 run, before being relieved by frosh Grace Haegele. The Saints tied the score at 4-4 in the 5th off Haegele, aided by a costly 3-run Griz throwing error. The Griz responded with a 3-run 5th before things got interesting in the top of the 7th. The Saints got 2 leadoff hits off Haegle & so coach Meuchel brought Joseph back into the game where the senior -- after giving up a single that scored a run -- got a force-out and then polished off the win with back-to-back strikeouts and the win. Hard to make predictions from this single game, but it seemed clear to me that Joseph gets stronger with each outing. If that continues, it'll be a good sign going into conference play where 3-game series require solid outings from at least two starters. A healthy Joseph seems to be a key to Montana's success in conference play.

Sophomore first baseman Jablonski was impressive to me defensively... which she backed up with two homers on the day. Junior dp Kelly Sweyer (homer) and soph rf Presli Jantzi (double, triple) had solid offensive outings. Jr Elise Ontiveros played outstanding D in center field and sr. Kendall Curtis anchored the infield at 2b. I think coach Meuchel is still experimenting with the left side of the infield as two players alternated (4 total) at both 3b and ss. Montana also displayed some aggressive baserunning that I haven't seen from this team before... two stolen bases and a heady, beautiful run-scoring slide into home by Curtis with a perfectly placed hand slap on home under the glove of the Saints catcher.

Though the box score indicates that frosh pitcher Haegele struggled, it's my opinion she pitched far better than the box shows. The lone Montana error led directly to 3 Saints runs. I was positively impressed with Haegele's potential and composure.

There was speculation earlier here at eGriz that Montana's home schedule may have been impacted by scheduling difficulties. I heard from a Griz insider that was indeed definitely the case. A D1 team scheduled to play 3 games in Missoula this week evidently backed out just prior to preseason play, leaving Montana unable to schedule a replacement team.
 
Won't get any easier to schedule D1 games in Missoula for non-conference in early to mid-march. The earliest game Montana will or has scheduled at home is the second weekend of March and roughly 99% of those non-conference games at home are against traditional cold weather softball programs. California schools won't travel in non-conference season unless it is a destination tournament, because most of them can schedule 15-20 games within 100 miles of campus. Teams don't want to schedule weekends that'll be cancelled due to weather, and even if Montana wanted to schedule home games earlier, they aren't going to have a ton of takers (if any).

So they have a two to three week window in mid-March because of the limited number of BSC schools, to schedule home games and the vast majority of western conferences (Big West, WCC, WAC, MWC, etc) start their conference schedules this last weekend. There aren't many teams available, which is why we've seen a ton of Seattle and UVU over the years. Both regional cold weather schools that have similar scheduling issues. We lost UVU, Seattle, and other WAC schools this year because of their expanded conference schedule. So who are regional teams that are available for a non-conference trip to Missoula? Not many at this point.

Beyond that it is a cost issue. My guess is that most teams that could fly in, it is probably a 25 grand weekend venture, and cash strapped college softball programs who spend their whole month of February on the road another weekend like that is a tough budget pill to swallow to play 3 games in two days for a game that could (but likely not) be cancelled due to weather.

This is why we have Carroll and Providence as our most frequent visitor to Missoula for our limited non-conference dates.

So while Missoula wants to show-out for its softball program and show off its top notch facility, unless the scheduling dynamics of collegiate softball change, most years our only non-conference home games are going to be against schools like Carrol and Providence.
 
Grizfan-24 said:
Won't get any easier to schedule D1 games in Missoula for non-conference in early to mid-march. The earliest game Montana will or has scheduled at home is the second weekend of March and roughly 99% of those non-conference games at home are against traditional cold weather softball programs. California schools won't travel in non-conference season unless it is a destination tournament, because most of them can schedule 15-20 games within 100 miles of campus. Teams don't want to schedule weekends that'll be cancelled due to weather, and even if Montana wanted to schedule home games earlier, they aren't going to have a ton of takers (if any).

So they have a two to three week window in mid-March because of the limited number of BSC schools, to schedule home games and the vast majority of western conferences (Big West, WCC, WAC, MWC, etc) start their conference schedules this last weekend. There aren't many teams available, which is why we've seen a ton of Seattle and UVU over the years. Both regional cold weather schools that have similar scheduling issues. We lost UVU, Seattle, and other WAC schools this year because of their expanded conference schedule. So who are regional teams that are available for a non-conference trip to Missoula? Not many at this point.

Beyond that it is a cost issue. My guess is that most teams that could fly in, it is probably a 25 grand weekend venture, and cash strapped college softball programs who spend their whole month of February on the road another weekend like that is a tough budget pill to swallow to play 3 games in two days for a game that could (but likely not) be cancelled due to weather.

This is why we have Carroll and Providence as our most frequent visitor to Missoula for our limited non-conference dates.

So while Missoula wants to show-out for its softball program and show off its top notch facility, unless the scheduling dynamics of collegiate softball change, most years our only non-conference home games are going to be against schools like Carrol and Providence.

You are 100% correct, Grizfan-24. I was told the school that canceled (Tulsa) gave a variety of explanations you cite (especially the one where they re-scheduled with an opponent where cost of travel etc. was much lower). The real problem is the Big Sky Conference, which should be working to re-align women's softball with the WAC (especially) or Mountain West to benefit Big Sky schools as a group.
 
If they only could schedule to play all NAIA teams like Carroll, they might hover around a .600 win percentage. :lol:
 
Back
Top