Alabama’s Next Superstar in the Making Goes by the Name of Montana
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The pitcher was a reindeer.
Ok, it wasn’t a real reindeer, rather University of Alabama sophomore Montana Fouts in costume while throwing a bullpen session at home on Christmas Day. She had seen the outfit in a Walmart and couldn’t help herself, thinking ‘I have to have this,’ and one thing led to another.
“No, I did not lose a bet,” she said with a laugh. “It was fun.”
If you get that part of Fouts you’re halfway to understanding what the sophomore is all about. She's 19 after all, and has no problem poking a little fun at herself or remembering that they’re all still playing a game.
Yet it’s the other item in that paragraph that’s even more telling: Fouts was throwing pitches and getting work in on Christmas Day.
She’s that driven.
Although Alabama has numerous top-tier players on this year’s softball team, which is ranked No. 1 in two of the four major preseason polls heading until Friday’s opener against North Carolina in Tallahassee, Fla., Fouts is at another level.
That’s nothing against the others. Players like Bailey Hemphill, Elissa Brown, Kaylee Tow and Skylar Wallace are all outstanding, and strong All-American candidates. Alabama has others as well, including a couple fans have yet to see play.
But Fouts is that rare athlete with the potential to transcend the boundaries of sports. She's that good.
We’ll start with some of her accomplishments over the past year.
Overall, she was 21-6 with a 1.39 ERA, with 193 strikeouts in 181.2 innings last season.
Not only was she instrumental in Alabama winning both the SEC regular season title and tournament championship, but during the Women’s College World Series threw back-to-back shutouts in elimination games against Arizona and Oklahoma. Fouts struck out 14 while scattering a combined seven hits to make the all-tournament team.
Other accolades included:
- NFCA Second Team All-American
- Women's College World Series All-Tournament Team
- SEC Freshman of the Year
- First Team All-SEC
- SEC All-Freshman Team
- USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Finalist
For an encore, Fouts played on the U19 version of Team USA along with two Alabama teammates (Wallace and freshman Lexi Kilfoyl), and came exceedingly close to making the U.S. Olympic Team – the one being offensively paced by former Crimson Tide great Haylie McCleney.
In addition to working with the best of the best, the tryout got her a lot of time around legendary pitchers like Monica Abbott, Cat Osterman and Keilani Ricketts. Fouts tried to be like a sponge around them and asked a lot of questions.
“They can give you little details that you’re like ‘Oh, I never thought about that,’” Fouts said. “Just taking a lot of the little stuff is going to help us out a lot.”
Had Fouts made the team that will compete in Japan this summer she would have redshirted the 2020 season with the Crimson Tide. While that would have certainly been an extraordinary experience, just getting spot duty through the exhibition schedule may not have been best for her development.
Instead, Fouts will lead maybe the best college softball team in the nation.
“This will be a really good year for her because she also has two senior-year pitchers [to lean on], she has a kid behind her, a freshman, who can help her out,” Crimson Tide coach Patrick Murphy said. “If she had to shoulder the load, like a two-person pitching staff and she was ‘it,’ then it would be a big deal.”
Murphy’s already comfortable calling this pitching staff probably the best in program history, or at least it has the potential. In addition to Fouts there’s the 2019 SEC Pitcher of the Year Sarah Cornell (22-1, 2.50), plus Krystal Goodman (11-1, 1.63) and Kilfoyl, who was nearly un-hittable at times during the fall.
During one scrimmage Kilfoyl faced 15 batters and struck out nine — and that was against her own teammates, who knew what was coming.
“She reminds me a lot of Steph and Jackie Traina,” Murphy said about Crimson Tide pitching coach Stephanie Van Brackle Prothro and the pitcher who led Alabama’s national championship in 2012. The common thread is power, both on the hill and has a hitter.
“You can play three or four ranked teams over a weekend and still get really good starts because you have a lot of options,” Murphy added about this staff.
All are outstanding, but Fouts is the ace. She’s the one who will get the ball in must-run situations, yet seems to have the pressure roll off her like a water on a rain slick.
“Montana is a huge factor on this team, not only because she’s an awesome pitcher but she’s a great person, great friend,” senior center fielder Elissa Brown said. “She’s level-headed. She’s calm all the time. She doesn’t have many highs and lows.
“She cares about the team before anything else.”
Last year, Fouts didn’t complain when Murphy, fearing the risk of overuse, didn’t start her in the make-or-break game of the World Series.
She’s the one who openly talks about how being more of a leader will only provide more motivation.
She’s the one who goes the extra mile to improve, like getting work in on Christmas Day.
“She has no ego,” Murphy said. “She’s very humble. Great kid. Really good teammate. Works hard, hard, hard. Probably too much. I think she’ll be fine.”
That last part was in reference to the growing attention Fouts is drawing, both on and off the field. Alabama softball players are known for attracting fans young and old when out in public, only for her it can be non-stop.
They range from 80-year-old grandmothers to 8-year-old kids. She’s good with all of them, and accepts that being a role model comes with being the spotlight. That’s not easy for anyone to handle, much less someone who only got to legally vote last year.
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“It’s definitely motivation because you’re doing it more not just for yourself kind of thing,” Fouts said of the attention. “Having younger people look up to you helps you day-to-day. It isn’t just for you.”
Murphy has called Fouts the next Jennie Finch, arguably the most famous softball player in history.
Another comparison for Alabama football fans would be that she’s the Tua Tagovailoa of her sport. Fouts is taller, though.
Regardless, she's well on her way of being worthy of both analogies/compliments, and every time Fouts pitches this season there's the chance of seeing something spectacular.
Yet she doesn’t consider her greatest accomplishment as having anything to do with a trophy or throwing perfect games. She says it's simply being on this team, at this school.
“It’s just a blessing to be here,” Fouts said.
