BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings softball team will be playing in the Dixie State Tournament this weekend. It is the final time MSUB will be in St. George, Utah as DSU is making the jump to Division One next year. MSUB will play five games in three days and look to build on the progress they made in eth Desert Stinger last weekend.
 
MSUB (3-3) will play Notre Dame De Numar and Western New Mexico University on Thursday February 6, California State University-Dominguez Hills and Colorado Mesa University on the seventh and finish with Fort Lewis College on the eighth.
 
"It has been nice to have a couple days off to recover from our first six games," said head coach Lisa McKinney. "We will get back to practice on Wednesday and work on a few things we needs to clean up but look forward to playing again. We will be looking to tighten up on defense and string together hits with runners in scoring position. We will be playing some good teams in Dixie so another good opportunity to get better. We learned a lot from the Desert Stinger and we will continue to grow."

The Yellowjackets played well in the Desert Stinger led by Morgan Quimby who finished the tournament with a batting average of .471 with 5 doubles, eight hits, a .765 slugging percentage and four runs batted in.
 
Also showing well was newcomer Britzy Hockett who now holds a batting average of .438 with five runs scored, one RBI and a slugging percentage of .500. Skyler Jenkins hit .417 with three RBIs.
 
In her first college game, freshmen Marin Penney hit a one run home run over the left field fence. Penney followed that with another homerun on the second day of the Desert Stinger to lead the team with two homeruns. In addition, Penny is batting .375 with a 1.125 slugging percentage.
 
Allie Hughes is hitting .294 with two runs scored, five hits and 3 RBIs. Senior Payton Reynolds is batting .500 after playing three games with four hits, two runs scored and is the only other 'Jacket to hit a homerun.
 
On the mound, MSUB utilized four pitchers in the Desert Stinger. Alyssa Etheridge (2-2) leads the team with 13.1 innings pitched. She has a 6.83 earned run average and leads the team with 11 strikeouts.
 
Maddy Lincoln (0-0) has 12.2 innings pitched to start the year with a 6.63 ERA and nine strikeouts. Freshmen Julia Qualteri (1-1) struck out five hitters in 6.0 innings of work with a 5.83 ERA.
 
Haley Couch pitched four innings and has an ERA of 3.50 while Hailee Gregerson appeared in 2.0 innings allowing no hits or runs for an ERA of 0.00.
 
Live stats for all games will be available at msubsports.com.