GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Lady Argo softball is coming off of its best road series since February 20, and returns to the friendly confines of its home field for two doubleheaders against Oregon Tech. UGF took two of three against Northwest Christian last weekend, for the team's first road wins since the start of conference play.
 
While returning home will be a welcome change for the Lady Argos who are 5-7 at home, but 4-12 in away games, the team's opponent won't be as welcome.
 
The OIT Owls are a tough opponent that currently sits in fourth in the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings with a record of 25-12 (14-7). The Owls will be hungry for a victory too, after dropping all four games of a back-to-back doubleheader against #18 Southern Oregon.
 
UGF's weekend went better, staying out of the CCC cellar by coming away with more wins than losses in a condensed series against NCU. The Lady Argos won 11-0 (5 innings) and 7-2 in the first two games of a tripleheader, before dropping the third game 4-0.
 
UGF will be home for the rest of the season. The four game series against OIT will be played on April 21 & 22, and will be followed by the final series of the season, a four game affair against College of Idaho on April 28 & 29. All of those games will be played at the Multi-Sports Complex Field #7 in Great Falls, Montana.
 
Quick Notes:

• UGF's 11-0 win over Northwest Christian ended a 7-game losing streak and an 11-game road losing streak.
• Oregon Tech leads the all-time series, 2-6 over UGF.
• UGF had its best pitching weekend in a while against NCU, starting with senior pitcher Shelby Abeyta. She had 4 strike outs and allowed 3 hits, and 0 runs in a 5-inning shutout in Game 1 of the series. She finished the weekend giving up just 1 earned run in 7 innings of work.
• Redshirt-freshman Mikayla Deigan followed up Abeyta's performance with a strong 11 innings of work. She finished the weekend 1-1, but that was more of a result of errors from her defense than it was her pitching. In 5 hitless innings of relief and a 6 inning start, Deigan allowed 4 hits, and 0 earned runs with 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
• Senior Hali Gruntowicz came alive in Game 2 for the Lady Argos. She had her fifth and sixth home runs of the season on her way to 3 hits, 2 runs, and 4 RIBs in 4 at bats. 4 of her 6 home runs have come in the second half of the season.
• Continuing to be aggressive at the plate for the Lady Argos is junior Kylie Gonzales. She had 4 hits, 1 run and 4 RIBs in 9 at bats.  She leads the team in hits (36), extra base hits (16), home runs (7), RBIs (36), and walks (12).
• Senior Jackie Thomas also added to the Lady Argos offense. She had 5 hits, 1 run, and 3 RBI's in 9 at bats, bringing her season batting average to 0.354. She is tied with fellow senior Jocelyn Kaufman for the team lead in average. It's a dramatic jump from her junior season when she hit 0.264.
• The Lady Argos rank 28th in the NAIA in doubles per game (1.719). Spearheading that effort is junior Bailey Henderson with 12.

 
About Oregon Tech:

• Oregon Tech in on a 5-game losing streak after losing both doubleheaders to #21 Southern Oregon University.
• The Owls went 2-1 against UGF in the 2016 season.
• UGF will have to face returning pitchers, sophomore Ali Graham and junior Kelly Scott. Scott went 1-0 against the Lady Argos in the 2016 season. She leads the pitching staff with a total of 67 strikeouts and a record of 10-6. Graham has the best record of the three PIT pitchers (7-1) and has an ERA of 3.40.
• The third member of the OIT rotation is sophomore Loryn Williams who leads the team with an ERA of 3.11 and has a record of 7-6.
• Offensively, the Owls are led by junior Tara Moates. She has a batting average of .429 with 54 hits, and leading the team in RBI's with 34. She also ranks 47 in the NAIA in homeruns with 8.
• As a whole, Tech is ranked third in the conference in batting average with .329 and second in runs batted in per game (5.65).