HELENA, Mont. – Carroll College softball hosts University of Great Falls on Sunday for a conference doubleheader before traveling to Great Falls on Monday for another doubleheader.
The doubleheader at Great Falls was originally scheduled for Saturday but has been pushed back to Monday due to weather conditions. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Carroll currently sits atop the East Division in Cascade Conference, ahead of Great Falls and Eastern Oregon. The Saints need to win two of the four games against Great Falls to clinch a share the divison. The Saints hold tiebreaker over both Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho. The first place team of each division receives a bye to conference tournament semifinals.
Great Falls is currently 17-11 on the season with a 9-7 record in conference action. The Argos split their doubleheaders against Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho last Saturday and Sunday.
The Argos' offense is led by Alex Lowry who is hitting .310 on the season with three home runs and a team leading 17 RBIs. Hali Gruntowicz leads the team with a .360 average and has driven in 11 runs.
The pitching staff is focused around Keeley Van blaricom who leads the team with a 2.11 ERA and a 9-3 record. She has pitched 93 innings while tailing 60 strike outs and issuing 28 walks. Van blaricom ranks 2nd in conference in ERA and tied for 5th in wins.
Carroll is 21-15 on the season with an 8-8 record in conference play. The Saints are coming off a weekend where they swept both Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho at home.
The Saints faced University of Montana on Tuesday for an exhibition doubleheader, where they dropped both games 11-1, and 10-0 after five innings.
Tianna Sell and Allison Bayer combined in the middle of the order to lead the Saints offense. Sell leads the team in batting average (.405), RBIs (22) and tied for home runs with three with Bayer. Bayer is currently hitting .349 on the year with three home runs and 17 RBIs.
The pitching staff features two aces in Megan Gipe and Tess Eaton. Both pitchers combined for 25 innings pitched last weekend, giving up two runs on only eight hits and struck out 17. Gipe is 5-6 on the season with a 3.03 ERA in 71.2 innings pitched while striking out 44. Eaton lowered her ERA to 3.12 and improved to 5-3 after throwing the first no-hitter in school history against College of Idaho.
Carroll will be without lead-off hitter Jaylin Kenney for the doubleheaders against Great Falls. She will be in Arizona to play for the Saints in the for the Frontier Conference Golf championship.
First pitch for the Sunday game will be at 11 a.m. and live stats can be found here with video for the Sunday's game here. The games could be delayed due to weather conditions again and any updates will be made on Twitter and posted on the Carroll Athletics webpage.
