HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll College Softball team will officially begin a new era this afternoon, as they take on Bismarck State in the Inaugural Frontier Conference opening weekend, with games played at Station Bank Field at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Bismarck, N.D.

Following a successful non-conference open to the year, the Fighting Saints (5-5) will look to get things going on the right foot in the newly-formed Frontier Conference, beginning their campaign against the Mystics (5-16), who are in their first season of competition in the NAIA.

After spending the first 12 years in program history as a member of the Cascade Collegiate Conference, Carroll will now compete in an eight team Frontier. Providence, the lone other Montana school with a softball team makes the move with them, joining Bismarck State, Dickinson State, Dakota State, Mayville State, Valley City State, and Bellevue to comprise the young league.

Carroll enters the weekend coming off a long stretch of non-conference games last week in the desert, playing teams from throughout the Midwest and Arizona. Coming into the Frontier opener with a 5-5 record, the Saints are officially off to their best start under Head Coach Shawna Juarez, and hit conference play with a .500 or better mark for the first time since the COVID-shortened 2020 season (4-2).

Due to recent snowstorms, this weekend's series was bumped up one day, and moved to an alternate location with an artificial turf playing surface. The back-to-back doubleheaders will now take place at Station Bank Field, with 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. start times slated for both Thursday and Friday.

One change that will carry plenty of weight this season for the Saints is all four games of the weekend series counting towards conference records. Carroll enters the year having played three conference games in a series, with the fourth being a non-conference matchup in the CCC.

All four games will be streamed live HERE.

Live stats for all four games can be found at the following links:

GAME ONE | GAME TWO | GAME THREE | GAME FOUR