Montana Softball Eyes Big Sky Championship After Breakthrough Year

The Grizzly Softball team wrapped up its 2026 season last week in Pocatello, Idaho, by going 3-2 in the Big Sky Conference Tournament. They end their campaign with a 22-31 record, the first 20-win season since 2022, and the first time they finished above .500 in league play since 2019.

You think that was enough for Head Coach Stef Ewing? Think again.

"At the end of the day, we did not win a Big Sky Championship," Ewing said on Monday's Daily Drive with Ace Sauerwein. "And we did not win the Tournament, and there is more work to be done."

Don't get it construed, Coach Ewing was incredibly proud of this team's fight.

"The thing that's going to stand out to me is that they found their Swag," Ewing said about what this team did to stand out to her. "They found how to be confident, how to believe, and they found and learned how to never quit."

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The work is just beginning for Coach Ewing and her staff, which will look different come 2027. The team, however, will look mostly the same.

"We still have a lot to do, and our expectation is to, number one, be picked not to finish last in the Big Sky next year and to go win a Big Sky Championship."

They'll have a team ready to compete, too. The Griz lose just one senior, Chloe Saxton, to graduation. Who knows what the transfer portal will take and bring in, but as of now, the Grizzlies are bringing a hefty majority of their roster back to compete.

"I'm going to tell you right now that if we don't [win the Big Sky], it will be a disappointment for us because those are the expectations that we have."