BILLINGS, Mont. – Snapping a two-week absence from play, the Montana State University Billings softball team will begin Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with a four-game series against Central Washington, starting with a doubleheader this Friday at noon and 2 p.m. PT.
 
Saturday's doubleheader also starts at noon local time with a 2 p.m. game to follow. All four games will be livestreamed on Central Washington's YouTube channel; all livestream and live stat links can be found on the softball team's schedule page on msubsports.com.
 
This weekend's series will not only be the first countable GNAC games of the season, but also the only regular-season meeting between MSUB and the Central Washington Wildcats (6-9), which were picked to finish seventh out of seven teams in the GNAC preseason poll.

The Yellowjackets (6-12) are coming off a 13-day break in the action. Rain canceled the second day of MSUB's doubleheader at Western Oregon two weeks ago, then snow and field conditions at Avitus Group Stadium prevented the 'Jackets from hosting Simon Fraser last weekend. In the meantime, however, the team has focused on more of the mental aspects of the game, and re-centering themselves on their goals for the season now that conference play is here.
 
"We were able to get outside and practice, but we've been focused on taking care of the ball," MSUB head coach Lisa McKinney said. "We've had a lot of talks, especially about how this season is still in front of us. Conference play is just starting, and all our goals are still within our grasps."
 
"This week we've led a lot of talks as coaches, but the girls are learning how to implement what we tell them by themselves," McKinney added. "We've had two really good practices that were focused and fun, and they were getting the job done."
 
The Yellowjackets are coming off a stretch of playing 16 games in the first 16 days of the season before its four-game series at Western Oregon on Feb. 26. No team in the GNAC has been hit as hard by weather cancelations as the 'Jackets so far, yet McKinney views the time away as a potential bright side in the long term.
 
"We've been on the road for so long, and I think these past two weeks have given them a time to sit back and reflect on what's happened this preseason and how they're going to change it going into conference play."
 
Most recently in Monmouth, the 'Jackets fell 10-2 and 9-0 in a pair of five-inning games, yet they weren't able to salvage the doubleheader as the series was canceled because ran made conditions unplayable. In that series, however, MSUB got a lift from leading hitter Morgan Quimby; the senior has batted .314 overall and she went 2-for-3 with hits in both games against WOU while drawing a walk.
 
"At Western Oregon, Morgan stepped up a lot to try to get hits, and she's been doing that a lot at practice," McKinney said. "She's trying to keep everyone going at the right speed while having them understand the goals ahead of us," McKinney said. "She's always been so encouraging of her teammates, and she's continuing to be herself out there."
 
"She's been making good adjustments offensively and she's been trying to take charge of the defense by not only making the routine plays, but also trying to go for those extraordinary plays," Assistant coach Taylor Olsen echoed.
 
In the circle, the 'Jackets also got effective relief innings from Alyssa Etheridge, who struck out three batters, allowed one earned run on three hits during 2.1 innings of work. Both Etheridge and Julia Qualteri have been the team's leading pitchers and top-10 pitchers in the GNAC this season with earned run averages of 2.70 and 3.65, respectively.
 
"Alyssa and Julia are trying to take on that leadership role in the pitching staff," Olsen said. "I think Alyssa and Morgan are really stepping up and trying to guide the team to the traditions it once had."
 
Aside from Quimby and Marin Penney – who went 1-for-3 and hit her first home run of the season against Western Oregon – senior first baseman Brittanee Fisher has reached base in 13-straight games, whereas freshman outfielder Lauren Blaschak is riding a seven-game hitting streak. MSUB's power-hitting offense still leads the league in home runs at 0.72 per game, which also ranks 67^th in Division II.
 
CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY WILDCATS
Record: 6-9
Head coach: Joe DiPietro (1^st season)
Head-to-head record: 25-46
Last meeting: March 22, 2021 (12-4, CWU)
 
Led by first-year head coach Joe DiPietro, who took over for former head coach Alison Mitchell after she stepped down during the offseason, the Central Washington Wildcats have gone 3-5 against GNAC opponents in non-countable conference games this season.
 
Central Washington kicked off its season in the Desert Stinger, where the Wildcats went 1-4 with losses to Chico State, MSU Denver, Concordia University Irvine and Cal State Dominguez Hills – three of whom are teams MSUB has played. Its lone win of the tournament was a 1-0 win over Academy of Art, an opponent MSUB has run-ruled twice in non-conference play.
 
Unlike MSUB, Central Washington has played three different GNAC opponents in the non-conference portion of the schedule: The Wildcats split two games with Saint Martin's, went 0-for-2 against Simon Fraser in Canada, then split a four-game series with Northwest Nazarene. All three of CWU's wins have been by one run.
 
Most recently, the Wildcats swept the first day of a doubleheader against Northwest Nazarene with come-from-behind 7-6 and 9-8 wins, but they dropped the next two games of the series against the Nighthawks.
 
On offense, the Wildcats have ridden its trio of Harlee Carpenter, Allie Thiessen and Myiah Seaton, who have been Central Washington's leadoff hitters over the past six games. All three players get on base at a .400 clip or better, plus Carpenter and Seaton are two of the league's leaders in drawn walks. Carpenter, a GNAC First-Team selection from last year, has batted .283 and leads the Wildcats with 12 runs scored; whereas Thiessen leads the team in hits (18), batting average (.383) and her .455 on-base percentage is ninth-best in the GNAC. Seaton rounds out the trio by batting .333 with a .434 on-base percentage that ranks 13^th in the league.
 
"Central Washington has always been known as a good hitting team," McKinney said. "You have to work hard as a pitcher, use your defense and trust them to get those outs. I think that's a lot of what we've been focusing on this week: How do we, as a pitching staff and as a team, keep their batters off base? As hitters for ourselves, we're trying to trust ourselves to be successful."
 
While the team hasn't gotten many runs off the long ball – junior catcher Alyssa Benthagen has hit both of the Wildcats' home runs this season – the Wildcats lead the GNAC with 18 stolen bases. Seaton is tied atop the GNAC with six stolen bases so far, plus Karsyn Decker and Harlee Carpenter have stolen four and three bases apiece, respectively.
 
"We can go in with good knowledge with what we did against other small-ball teams like Minot State and San Francisco State and use that to our advantage," McKinney said. "We do need to be ready for them to be aggressive on the bases and we need to pay attention to the back runners this weekend."
 
In the circle, Central Washington brings back GNAC Honorable Mention selection Rhaney Harris, who has a 2-5 record and a team-low 3.32 earned run average. Isabel Womack, who previously carried a 22.1 scoreless inning streak earlier this season, returns as well; opponents have hit .213 against Womack, which is the second-best mark in the GNAC.
 
UP NEXT: MSUB's four-game series against Central Washington starts on Friday at noon local time. Livestream and live stat links can be found on the softball team's schedule page on msubsports.com.