BILLINGS, Mont. – After playing five games in last weekend's Tournament of Champions, the Montana State University Billings softball team will return to Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with a four-game home series against Northwest Nazarene University, starting at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 9.
 
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 four games will be livestreamed on the MSUB Sports YouTube channel. Livestream and live stat links can be found on the softball team's schedule page at msubsports.com.
 
"I hope they take their last win at the Tournament of Champions and apply it this week," MSUB head coach Lisa McKinney said. "I hope our pitchers continue to do what they did – I think all of them pitched well at the TOC – and I hope the defense learns from their errorless play on Sunday. Offensively, I hope we keep stringing hits together, keep being disciplined and keep finding a way to put the ball in play."
 
Friday's series also kicks off an eight-game homestand for the 'Jackets, who have three more regular-season series remaining in conference play. The top four teams will play in the GNAC Softball Championships, and although MSUB is tied for sixth in the GNAC with a 4-8 record, the team is only two games back from fourth-place Central Washington, which is 6-6. MSUB's goal of returning to the GNAC Championships for the first time since 2015 is still attainable. The eight-game homestand could be favorable for the 'Jackets to make a push in the standings.
 
"Two-thirds of our team hasn't played a full season before, but I think they're handling it well so far," McKinney said. "I think physically, we're at the point where we're grinding through the middle of the season, and I think they've been handling that pretty well. The biggest thing I'm proud of is they're staying on top of their academics while we've traveling this much. Now we have the chance over the next two weeks to get caught up on things and focus on softball."
 
Last week at the Tournament of Champions, the Yellowjackets (11-24, 4-8 GNAC) went 1-4 against PacWest and CCAA competition, while the Nighthawks (17-15, 5-3 GNAC) went 0-4. After making gradual improvements throughout the weekend, Sunday's game was MSUB's best. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Jenna Kister and Dominican University ace Shelby Keltner squared off in a pitchers' duel, as both players pitched complete-games with seven strikeouts apiece. Yet clutch hits from Kilee Imada and Brittanee Fisher and five-straight shutout innings from Kister made the difference in a 2-1 MSUB win.
 
All told, Kister's final statline of seven strikeouts and one earned run on three hits – all while issuing zero walks – was her best game of the season. According to MSUB assistant coach Taylor Olsen, she and the coaching staff knew that Kister was due for a big outing because of her relaxed, loose demeanor leading into the game.
 
"What sold us on starting Jenna on Sunday was how loose she was going into the day, and I think that's what helped her be so successful," Olsen said of Kister's start. "Jenna is a competitor through and through. She has two personas: When she's in the dugout she's having fun and she's loose, but when she steps on the mound, it's all business. I think continuing to have that separation has allowed her to be successful."
 
Although the Penguins took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run in the second inning, Kister would allow only one hit from that point forward. MSUB, meanwhile, seized momentum in the fourth inning and didn't look back. After Dominican got on board with a leadoff single, sophomore outfielder Brie Frazier chased down a ball in shallow center field, made the grab and – with the help of Fisher's stretch at first – helped turn a double-play as Domincan's pinch-runner took a risky lead off first base.
 
"Brie did a really good job of tracking down balls in the outfield last weekend," McKinney said. "She does a great job of focusing on getting the lead runners out, so I think that's what allows her to get so many outfield assists. And she's always been one of our quicker players."
 
MSUB would get on the board in the fifth inning, thanks to Imada's third home run of the year. Imada also had a productive weekend: She started in all three games she played, saw time at both shortstop and second base, plus she hit an RBI double in MSUB's 5-3 loss to Hawai'i Pacific last Saturday. Over her last nine starts, Imada has 10 RBIs and three home runs.
 
"I think Kilee did a really great job this weekend," McKinney said. "She also moved around the field for us by playing second base and shortstop, and I thought she played really good defense. In her first at-bat against Dominican, she struggled a little bit, but then she made a really good adjustment in her second-at bat and battled off a few pitches before she got to the one she wanted. I thought she made a really good adjustment on Sunday; she's been hitting the ball hard and in play, which has been good."
 
MSUB would take the lead in the sixth off an RBI single from Fisher, which would bring Frazier into score from second base. Fisher's bat was one constant for the 'Jackets last weekend: The senior first baseman went 8-for-14 with a run scored and a team-high 4 RBIs at the TOC.
 
"Brittanee did a really good job of understanding the conditions at the Tournament of Champions – any ball that was going to be hit hard was going to get caught by the wind and there weren't a ton of chances to get extra-base hits," McKinney said. "But I thought she did a good job of finding holes and finding a way to get runners in when we needed them. She was also a smart baserunner last weekend – she advanced to second on a few throws home, which helped us keep runners in scoring position. Even though we might not have scored her every time, it was still a positive thing because we need to be doing those little things correctly to win ballgames."
 
Gifted with a 2-1 lead, Kister did the rest. The sophomore finished off her second complete-game of the season by shutting down Dominican with three-straight swinging strikeouts.
 
"She's continuing to get better," Olsen said. "She's understanding that she needs to put more spin on her pitches, work the zones a little more and attack hitters. Sunday's game really showed her that she can go after hitters and still be just as successful, while allowing the defense to do their jobs. When she tends to tiptoe around hitters, that's when pitches get missed, but she's been able to attack the zone and trust her defense."
 
Throughout last weekend, MSUB tinkered with its lineup and tried different combinations of outfielders. In particular, Shelby Marquardt started in right field for the final three games of the tournament and had the first multi-hit game of her career against Cal State East Bay last Saturday. In the 5-2 loss to the Pioneers, Marquardt helped spark the offense with leadoff singles, plus she helped get MSUB on the board when Fisher's bases-clearing 2 RBI single scored her and Frazier in the third inning.
 
"We've talked a lot about being ready for the opportunity to play and I think a lot of girls did that this weekend," McKinney said. "Shelby Marquardt came in and had a multi-hit game [against Cal State East Bay] that really helped us out. She's very versatile in the box too; being one of our only lefties on the team, she gives us a different look. Shelby has been waiting for this moment, and she took advantage of it. We've always known she's a good defender and she's been working on her hitting, which I think that showed this past weekend."
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE UNIVERSITY NIGHTHAWKS
Record: 17-15 (5-3 GNAC)
Head coach: Rich Wagner (10^th season)
Head-to-head record: 49-25
Last meeting: May 1, 2021 (9-2, MSUB)
 
The Nighthawks and the 'Jackets have crossed paths at all three non-conference tournaments this season. Most recently, MSUB played three of NNU's four opponents – Dominican University, Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State San Bernardino – at the Tournament of Champions. Yet the Nighthawks were the only GNAC team to go winless at the TOC, posting an 0-4 record with a run differential of minus-8 across all four games.
 
But the Nighthawks' TOC record is deceptive – after all, Northwest Nazarene was picked to finish second in the conference this year.
 
NNU is a solid team across the board, sporting a 5-3 record in GNAC play and boasting the conference's best pitching duo in Sidney Booth and Charlotte Forniss, both of whom have the lowest earned-run averages in the conference at 2.07 and 2.14, respectively.­
 
A two-way player, Booth is putting together a GNAC Player of the Year-caliber resume this season. In the circle, she leads the GNAC with 115.0 innings pitched and 117 strikeouts, while in the box, she has a .400/.482/.621 slashline, ranks second in the GNAC with 12 doubles on the year and ranks 10^th with 23 RBIs. She was the only GNAC player named to the NFCA's Division II National Player & Pitcher of the Year Top 50 watch list.
 
Lest the Nighthawks be mistaken for a one-woman show, their lineup is productive across the board. Emma Mulligan gets on base at a .381 clip, mostly in part to drawing a conference-high 21 walks in the leadoff spot. Senior shortstop Ivy Hommel has a .359 batting average and leads the team with 29 runs scored. Batting in the cleanup spot, Maia McNicoll has 28 RBIs on the year – good for fifth in the conference – plus she leads the team with five home runs.
 
Last season, NNU came into Avitus Group Stadium ranked 25^th in the nation before the Yellowjackets capped off Senior Day with a 9-2 upset win.
 
UP NEXT: MSUB faces off against NNU at home, starting with a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m. Saturday's doubleheader starts at noon. Livestream and live stat links can be found at the softball team's schedule page on msubsports.com.