It was apparent that Montana was not going to allow Sydney Groves, the Big Sky’s leading power hitter, to beat them in their first-round matchup with Idaho State in the conference tournament on Monday.
So redshirt freshman Kira Day did it instead.
Day, the outfielder from Phoenix, bombed a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Idaho State a 10-1, run-rule shortened victory over the Grizzlies on Monday afternoon. The win advanced the Bengals, who are hosting the tournament, to a second-round contest Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Sacramento State.
Idaho State won two of three against Sacramento State during the regular season. The Hornets beat Northern Colorado, 6-5, in Monday’s other first-round contest to advance.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, split their two games on the day, beating Weber State, 8-3, Monday morning behind three home runs by shortstop Anna Cockhill, before falling to the Bengals. Cockhill is the first player to hit three home runs in a Big Sky tournament game. Montana will play Portland State at 11 a.m. Tuesday in a loser-out contest.
Groves, who led the Big Sky Conference in both home runs and runs batted in for the regular-season champion Bengals, barely saw a pitch to hit against the Grizzlies on Monday. She walked three times, going 0-for-1 in her only official at-bat.
But with Idaho State’s deep batting order—and Big Sky Pitcher of the Year Marley Goluskin on the mound—it hardly mattered. In addition to Day’s homer, ISU center fielder Ava Brown also went deep, driving in two runs.
ISU shortstop Camryn McDonald, who led the Big Sky Conference in hitting this season, also had two hits, including a double, scored a run and drove in a pair.
And just to illustrate how deep that Bengal lineup is, second baseman Belle Navarrete, hitting in the ninth spot in the order, had three hits, including a double, scored a run and drove in two.
The Bengals, 35-18 on the season, broke the game open with four runs in the fourth, and then Day finished things off with her walk-off homer.
“It was great to see us come out and play a complete game to open up the tournament,” said ISU coach Andrew Rich. “Marley threw great and we had some timely hitting throughout the lineup.”
Goluskin, meanwhile, continued her dominance over Montana. After holding the Grizzlies, now 20-31, to two runs over 14 innings in two wins in Missoula on April 25 and 26, the junior from California held Montana to one run on six hits on Monday. The rubber-armed righty had thrown 334 pitches in the last three outings.
She had support from a strong Bengal defense on Monday.
“We had some great defensive plays throughout the game,” said Rich. “Kennedy (Dudley) was awesome at third and had some huge plays.”
Speaking before he knew who the Bengals would face on Tuesday, Rich said he wasn’t sure who would get the call to start in the circle in that contest.
“We’ll be tested no matter who we face tomorrow, but I know our group will be ready to go,” said Rich.