BILLINGS, Mont. – A week removed from playing its Senior Week series on the road in Missoula, Mont., the Montana State University Billings softball team will make one final road trip to Burnaby, British Columbia for a four-game Great Northwest Athletic Conference series against Simon Fraser starting this Saturday.
 
Both doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday will start at 12 p.m. PT with the second game set to start at around 2 p.m. PT. Livestream and live stat links can be found on the MSUB softball team's schedule page at msubsports.com.
 
MSUB is coming off a hard-fought four-game sweep at the hands of Saint Martin's on April 14-15, in which the Yellowjackets had to adapt to a last-second venue change to Missoula, Mont., one fewer day of practice time and an incoming snowstorm towards the end of Senior Day. Although Yellowjackets (11-32, 4-16 GNAC) are mathematically eliminated from the GNAC Softball Championship race, yet they can still play spoiler against Simon Fraser (15-17, 6-10), which is three games behind fourth-place Central Washington in the standings.
 
"This weekend, I think this is a time for us to really enjoy each other," MSUB head coach Lisa McKinney said. "This is the last time this team will be together. We just want them to go out, play ball and have fun with their best friends."
 
Last week against Saint Martin's, the MSUB offense put behind its series-opening struggles and strung together several of its best showings at the plate all year. The Yellowjackets notched a season-high 15 hits in the 9-8 game two loss, which featured three home runs and a whopping four bunts in a row to take a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning. Save for a disastrous sixth inning in game three, the final three games were competitive, all-around showings.
 
"The offense last weekend did a great job of stringing hits together, which was something we struggled with a few weeks ago," McKinney said. "We look to continue that. We've actually seen our hitting continue when we have played live this week, so it was good to see that carry over from the games last week. In practice this week, our focus has been on cleaning up the defense. We had a few too many errors last week. But we want to find ways to keep battling in close games and get the win."
 
Offensively, MSUB got most of its runs from Skyler Jenkins and Brie Frazier at the top of the order. Starting in the outfield in every game of the series, Frazier went 2-for-3 in games two and three, but she saved her best day for the series finale. Frazier went 3-for-6 across both games last Friday, scored three runs and added 2 RBIs.
 
Meanwhile, Jenkins made the most of her Senior Week series: She hit two home runs in a 3-for-5 showing with 3 RBIs in game two, plus she was the only Yellowjacket to record hits in all four games of the series. Jenkins is carrying a team-high 12-game hitting streak into this weekend's series.
 
"Skyler has stayed gritty the entire year," McKinney said. "She had a big stretch where she kept hitting at people. But she didn't change anything about her swing. She just got on some different times and she found some holes."
 
"She's really been a really big asset out there for us in the outfield with a couple of outfield assists last weekend," McKinney said. "She's made some really big plays when we've needed them. And props to the rest of the defense for either making the stretch or putting the tag on runners on the other end of her plays. Skyler's done a lot at that position this year."
 
MSUB also got a lift from fifth-year senior Sydney Norwood, who made the start at first base in game one. Norwood broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the third inning with a bases-clearing double along the right-field line for her first multi-RBI game of the season.
 
"Norwood did a good job of staying within herself and finding holes when we needed hits," McKinney said. "She came up with a couple of clutch hits that scored runs for us. She did a really good job of hitting to right field, so I'm looking for her to continue that. She's always been a solid defender for us as well."
 
Pitching-wise, a solid relief outing from Preslee Christensen – who gave up only one run in her career-high 5.0-inning outing – left the door open for a MSUB comeback in the series finale. The true freshman has seen more playing time as of late, and McKinney hopes she can finish her debut season on a high note this weekend.
 
"Preslee did a good job against Saint Martin's," McKinney said. "I think last weekend was one of the best performances we've seen with her change-up, and she's carried that into practice this week, so I'm excited to see her carry that into the games against Simon Fraser."
 
This weekend's series marks the final time MSUB's six seniors – fifth-year players Brittanee Fisher, Allie Hughes and Sydney Norwood, plus seniors Skyler Jenkins, Sidney Pollard and Morgan Quimby – will play together. Coincidentally, fifth-year seniors Fisher and Hughes will have come full circle when they make the trip to Canada. Back in 2018, the road series at Simon Fraser was not only Fisher and Hughes' first GNAC road trip, but also their first-ever series in conference play.
 
"Brittanee just needs to be herself and have fun," McKinney said this week. "As long as she doesn't overcomplicate her swing, she's going to do great things this weekend. I'm excited – especially after watching her over the last couple of days, she's back in a groove. I think she's in a good spot."
 
"Allie has always been a good teammate and she's done what her teammates need her to do," McKinney added about Hughes. "She's always been one of the top hitters in this program, but I always know if we ask her to go in and bunt, she's always going to get the job done. That's what Allie has always been about: She's going to get the job done, she's going to do it quietly but she's going to do it well."
 
MSUB's middle infield duo of Quimby and Pollard are coming off a weekend in which they helped turn two difficult plays on Senior Day. As Saint Martin's loaded the bases in the third inning of game two, Pollard caught a line-drive infield hit and turned a double play with third baseman Marin Penney. Then Pollard got the lead runner out at second to end the inning when she tracked down a hit up the middle and flipped the ball to Quimby in time to make the tag.
 
"Morgan and Sidney have been working together for such a long time that they almost don't even need to communicate to each other to know what the other one is thinking out there, which is awesome," McKinney said. "They showed that on the play where Sidney had that diving grab and flipped it back to Mo, who was right there waiting in the stretch to catch it. It's always nice when you have a set of middle infielders who have that relationship. I think that's something good that they've shown the underclassmen."
 
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Record: 15-17 (6-10 GNAC)
Head coach: Tina Andreana (3^rd season)
Head-to-head record: 21-19
Last meeting: March 8, 2020 (5-4, MSUB)
 
Trailing fourth-place Central Washington by three games in the GNAC standings, Simon Fraser's series with MSUB is a must-win for head coach Tina Andreana's team, which is vying for its first GNAC Softball Championship appearance since 2018.
 
So far, Simon Fraser's offense leads the GNAC at 6.03 runs scored per game, yet SFU's pitching staff ranks seventh out of seven teams with a 6.20 earned run average. As a unit, SFU's pitchers are young – sophomore Makayla Benz is the elder stateswoman of the four pitchers on staff – and the team has been known to use multiple pitchers in every game. The last time a Simon Fraser pitcher had a complete game in GNAC play was March 13, 2022.
 
Given the team's offensive production, the first five batters in SFU's order have top-20 batting averages in the GNAC. Third baseman Alex Ogg is hitting a league-best .435 as the leadoff hitter, whereas fellow corner infileder Hanna Finkelstein bats second, leads the GNAC with 13 doubles, has 43 RBIs and has hit a team-high six home runs. Janique Balcaen, Hannah Boulanger and Chelsea Hotner have been interchangeable in the 3-through-5 spots in the lineup and each player has batting averages of .300 or better.
 
Prior to this week's series, SFU ran into a buzzsaw against Western Washington. SFU took one out of four games in the series thanks to a 6.2-inning relief appearance from freshman pitcher Anissa Zacharczuk, who leads the team with a 7.38 ERA in 24 appearances.
 
This weekend marks the first series between MSUB and Simon Fraser in over two years. SFU was the only GNAC team to opt out of the 2021 season due to the coronavirus pandemic; they were picked to finish fifth out of seven teams in the preseason poll.
 
UP NEXT: First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader starts at noon local time, then game two will follow at 2 p.m. Sunday's games are also scheduled for noon and 2 p.m. PT. Livestream and live stat links can be found on the MSUB softball team schedule page at msubsports.com.