BILLINGS, Mont. – Twenty-six games, three out-of-state tournaments, two weeks of Great Northwest Athletic Conference play and a weather cancelation later, the Montana State University Billings softball team will finally play its 2022 home opener with a four-game series against Western Washington, starting this Saturday at noon.
 
Tickets can be purchased at the door of Avitus Group Stadium for $5, and children in the sixth grade or below are free. MSUB students and staff can also attend for free with a valid MSUB ID. All games will be livestreamed on the MSUB Athletics YouTube channel.
 
"I think the whole team is excited to finally get some home games in," MSUB head coach Lisa McKinney said. "The nice thing is, it looks like we're going to have good weather. The girls have always liked playing here at home and it's going to be a nice change for us to play at home, rather than on the road this weekend."
 
In the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings, the Yellowjackets (10-16, 4-4 GNAC) have a .500 record and are in a three-way tie with Simon Fraser and Western Washington for third place. This weekend's series marks the halfway point in the GNAC race, making this a pivotal tilt before the Yellowjackets take a brief break from conference play at the Tournament of Champions next week.
 
"The girls still understand that going to the postseason is really in play for us," McKinney said. "They're doing their best to focus one game at a time, take care of our own business and not worry about the rest of the things going on within the conference. We know that as long as we take care of business, we can control our own destiny."
 
Once MSUB returns, it will have an eight-game homestand against Northwest Nazarene and Saint Martin's before concluding the regular-season at Simon Fraser on April 23-24.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK
The Yellowjackets got revenge from dropping two big losses to the Western Oregon Wolves earlier this season, taking the first two games of the series with 8-2 and 8-7 wins before splitting the series with 4-3 and 11-4 losses on day two.
 
The Yellowjacket offense was firing on all cylinders in the first day of action. Brittanee Fisher homered in back-to-back games, went 4-for-6 in the first doubleheader with 6 RBIs. Jazlyn Kalehuawehe's three-run blast in game two of the series not only helped MSUB take a lead it wouldn't relinquish, but also made the freshman tied for 10^th in the GNAC with three home runs this season. For the second weekend in a row, Skyler Jenkins hit a leadoff home run in the second game of the two-game series, plus she made her eighth-consecutive start in center field.
 
Sophomore shortstop Kilee Imada also hit two three-run home runs – breaking open the first game of the series with in the fourth inning last Saturday, then with another in Sunday afternoon's season finale.­­­­­­­­­­
 
"Kilee had a big weekend last weekend and came up with two big-time home runs for us," McKinney added. "They're really finding a way to win games."
 
Aside from the long ball, MSUB got another consistent weekend in the batter's box from senior Allie Hughes, who had her best day of the series last Saturday by going 2-for-3 with an RBI double and a run scored. On the weekend, she had four hits and two walks with 3 RBIs.
 
"She's been having some really good at-bats, she's gained a lot of walks and has come up with a few clutch hits," McKinney said. "Last weekend, we lived and died by the long ball, and Allie was one of the few people who scored runs without the long ball. I think that says a lot about her."
 
As for the defense, the 'Jackets not only ­turned two double plays on the series, but also made a concerted, team-wide effort to cut down errors. They succeeded. Throughout the weekend, MSUB committed only three errors in four games – a far cry from the seven errors it committed in the four-game series against Central Washington the week prior.
 
"Even though we went 2-2, I'm still really proud of our team for getting the 8-7 win [last Saturday] and having the team hold that 8-7 score for the last three innings, defensively," McKinney said. "I'm also impressed with the 3-3 tie in game three that we had for seven innings because of our defense and our pitching staff. I thought those were two really big moments for our team to play through those. It was really nice to see them play calm, relaxed and make plays when they needed them."
 
Part of this defensive resurgence came from the infield, which kept getting the lead runner out and made the Wolves strand 41 baserunners to MSUB's 28 throughout the four games. Besides Imada, who had a productive week starting at shortstop, third baseman Marin Penney was a critical factor in neutralizing WOU's effectiveness in bunting situations.
 
"Marin was responsible for getting so many lead-runners out for us," McKinney said. "I think she got six or seven out for us, which was huge for us to keep their runners out of scoring position."
 
Although MSUB went 0-2 against the Wolves on day two, one of those losses was a 4-3, 11-inning marathon – the longest MSUB softball game since 2015. In that game, Alyssa Etheridge pitched in all 10.1 innings, recorded a career-high 14 strikeouts and only allowed nine hits while issuing just four walks. Her 14-strikeout outing is tied for the third-most in a single game in MSUB history.
 
"She made a statement early that it was her game," McKinney said of Etheridge. "She actually started off the game with a walk. That sparked something in her, and then she struck out the side in that first inning. Ever since then, she knew it was her game. There was no doubt she was going to finish the game – no matter how long it took, she was ready to go one more inning."
 
"Whenever we were discussing the game, we kept telling her to get one more inning," MSUB assistant coach Taylor Olsen added. "She definitely took on a different demeanor and had a good presence at the mound. She just wanted the ball. That was the expectation she set for herself, and that's a huge component of her leadership abilities."
 
Throughout the series, junior catcher Maycen O'Neal was the guiding hand behind all four games. While O'Neal had three hits and five walks across both games, she also called all four games for four different pitchers throughout the weekend.
 
"She does a really good job of holding the pitching staff accountable," McKinney said. "The pitching staff's successes are the team's successes, and Maycen has done a really good job of talking the pitchers through things and knowing each of their strengths."
 
"She's kept people from stealing bases too," McKinney added. "We haven't had very many teams attempt to steal on us."
 
WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VIKINGS
Record: 13-13
Head coach: Sheryl Gilmore (4th season)
Head-to-head record: 43-35
Last meeting: April 3, 2021 (2-0, WWU)
 
Picked to finish second in the GNAC Preseason Poll, the Vikings have trended in the right direction after enduring a difficult non-conference stretch. WWU has won 8 of its last 10 games in the month of March – including wins over two of the GNAC's toughest teams so far in Northwest Nazarene and Saint Martin's.
 
Earlier this week, the Vikings won a two-game series against Northwest University –a member of the NAIA's Cascade Collegiate Conference. WWU's most recent GNAC outing was splitting a series against Northwest Nazarene, in which the Vikings outscored the Nighthawks 13-3 in the first doubleheader before losing the next two games 9-6 and 11-5.
 
Offensively, the top of Western Washington's lineup features a trio of seniors who lead the GNAC in several hitting categories. Senior shortstop Tatum Dow – who set the program record with a 20-game hitting streak earlier this season – carries a .395 batting average, gets on base at a .469 clip and ranks third in the GNAC with 34 hits on the year. Fellow senior centerfielder Lauren Lo (.395 BA, 10 doubles) and first baseman Dakota Brooks (.324/.377/.577) round out the top of the lineup; in particular, Brooks is one of the most productive two-out hitters in the GNAC by batting .478 with 14 RBIs. Sophomore designated player Macy Tarbox bats cleanup and leads the team with four home runs.
 
Although the Vikings haven't hit many home runs this year, their pitching staff hasn't given up many home runs this season. As a staff, the Vikings have a 4.28 earned run average, limited opponents to a .265 batting average and have given up a conference-low six home runs this season.
 
Opponents have hit a league-low .211 batting average against sophomore Sydney Brown, who carries a 2.94 ERA going into this weekend. Brown hasn't given up a home run in 35.2 innings this season. Senior Kira Doan has picked up where she left off in last spring's GNAC First Team-caliber campaign, as she has a 5-4 record, limits opponents to .234 batting average and sports a 3.94 ERA, which ranks ninth in the GNAC. Doan also leads WWU with four complete games. Joie Baker (3-4) rounds out the Vikings' key contributors and has team-high 49 strikeouts in 11 starts as a true freshman.
 
This weekend's series is expected to be a clash of styles. On one hand: The Vikings' pitchers don't give up many home runs. The Yellowjackets, meanwhile, rank 31^st in Division II with 25 home runs at an average of 0.96 per game (39^th in the nation).
 
MSUB went 1-for-3 in the season series in Bellingham last year, with its lone win coming from a four-run, seventh-inning rally to take game two of the tripleheader. In the teams' last meeting in Billings on March 30, 2018, the 'Jackets swept the Vikings in a tripleheader.
 
UP NEXT: MSUB's home opener against Western Washington starts at noon on Saturday, March 26^th. Livestream and live stat links can be found on the softball team's schedule page at msubsports.com. Tickets can be purchased at the door of Avitus Group Stadium for $5, and children in the sixth grade or below are free. MSUB students and staff can also attend for free with a valid MSUB ID.