Braxton Gregory Sports Editor
The Bengals had a decision to make.
After dropping Game 1 of the series to Montana 7-6, Idaho State could have let the weight of expectation crush them. Defending a Big Sky Conference regular season title is one thing. Winning a second straight, on the road, after a gut-punch loss, is something else entirely.
They chose different.
What followed Sunday afternoon in Missoula was a masterclass in championship poise. Idaho State softball did not just bounce back. It dominated, rolling to an 8-2 victory over Montana to clinch its second consecutive Big Sky Conference regular season title and serve notice that this program’s standard is not a ceiling. It is a floor.
Idaho State got on the board in the first when Alyssa Yee doubled to left field and Camryn McDonald moved her to third with a sacrifice bunt. Ava Brown followed with a sacrifice fly to right to give the Bengals a 1-0 lead, a quiet, composed start that set the tone for everything that followed.
The Bengals blew the game open in the second inning with a three-run rally. Jenna Kearns drew a leadoff walk, Kira Day singled to left to put two on, and Jaden Moore laid down a bunt single to load the bases. Kennedy Dudley then doubled to left center, scoring Kearns and Day. A throwing error by the Montana left fielder allowed Moore to score moments later, pushing the lead to 4-0.
Montana scratched back in the bottom of the second when Gutierrez singled up the middle to score Tarrant, cutting the deficit to 4-1. The Grizzlies would not go quietly, adding another run in the sixth to make it 5-2. But every time Montana inched closer, Idaho State had an answer. The Bengals added a fifth run in the fifth inning when Groves reached on a fielding error, scoring Yee to push the lead back to three.
Then came the seventh.
With Brown and McDonald aboard, senior first baseman Sydney Groves stepped to the plate and did what champions do. She launched a three-run homer to left field that silenced the Missoula crowd and sealed an 8-2 victory. The blast punctuated one of the most emphatic statements this program has made in back-to-back title runs.
“They took care of business and did what we needed to do,” head coach Andrew Rich said. “Game one could have been the series, that could have been it. But the leadership, the people who have been here a long time, got together and said, ‘we win series, that’s what we do.’ And we got right back into it.”
That leadership was evident from the first pitch of Game 2. The Bengals did not sulk after Game 1. They did not press. They executed, with small ball in the first, timely hitting in the second and a knockout blow in the seventh. It was a complete team performance built on trust, experience and the quiet confidence that comes from having been here before.
Groves led the offense with four RBIs. Dudley added two RBIs on her second-inning double and swiped a base. Yee reached base twice, scored twice and doubled. McDonald contributed with a sacrifice bunt that moved the game’s first run into scoring position, a small play that reflected the team’s buy-in on the little things.
Back-to-back regular season championships carry weight in any program. But for these Bengals, Sunday’s clincher was about more than a banner. It was proof that the expectations born from last year’s title did not slow them down. They fueled them. Idaho State did not just defend its crown. It earned it again, the hard way, on the road, after adversity.
“Our focus this next week should be to stay within ourselves, trust each other and do our jobs,” Groves said.
For a program that has now claimed consecutive Big Sky regular season titles, that mindset is not a rallying cry. It is simply who they are, and how they got here.