A Perfect Birthday!
OKLAHOMA CITY — The only difficulty Alabama ace Montana Fouts faced against the No. 2 team in the country Friday night was her own necklace getting tangled up in her protective mask.
It did slow her down a little, which was more than UCLA managed, en route to No. 3 Alabama securing a spot in the Women's College World Series semifinals.
"I left a couple pitches I wasn't really happy with the spin on them, but I thought they were a little flat, so I ran into the dugout and I told Steph [van Brakle Prothro] I thought Jesus was trying to tell me something to spin it a little bit," Fouts said in regards to her pitching coach.
She did a little more than "spin it" to the Bruins. Fouts was perfect, in every sense of the word, as she didn't allow one batter to reach base during Alabama's 6-0 victory.
No hits, walks or hit-by-pitch allowed as the Crimson Tide (52-7) never trailed against the reigning national champions.
On her 21st birthday, the junior pitcher sat down all 21 batters she faced, striking out 14 in just the fifth perfect game in WCWS history. It was also the first during her lifetime, as the most recent by Southern Miss pitcher Courtney Blades in 2000 (1-0 over Arizona) occurred days before Fouts was born.
| Team and Winning Pitcher(s) | Year |
|---|---|
UCLA 1, Western Michigan 0- Tracy Compton and Debbie Doom | 1982 |
Adelphi 1, Utah State 0- Julie Bolduc | 1984 |
Texas A&M 1, UCLA 0- Shawn Andaya | 1987 |
Southern Miss 1, Arizona 0- Courtney Blades | 2000 |
Alabama 6, UCLA 0- Montana Fouts | 2021 |
Alabama coach Patrick Murphy knew Fouts had a no-hitter in the works, but didn't realize until after the final out was made that it was a perfect game.
"Hell of a birthday present to herself," Murphy said.
In contrast, UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said her team knew that Fouts pounded the strike zone, and the Bruins aimed to be aggressive against her pitching.
"I don't have answers for why we weren't able to come out and execute it," Inouye-Perez said. "She's obviously a great pitcher. I think it's more about giving credit where credit is due. Credit Alabama. Montana Fouts was dominant tonight, clearly. She was perfect, right?"
Through two games in Oklahoma City, Fouts has given up one earned run on two hits with a combined 30 strikeouts. Similar to the opening-round win against Arizona on Thursday night, UCLA opened with a ground out and then Fouts struck out the next seven batters.
"We didn’t think she’d get better from yesterday, but she did," Murphy said.
Coming in, Alabama was 0-10 against UCLA in softball.
"Obviously you guys know these are good teams," Murphy said. "I mean this is the king of the Pac 12, the Pac 12 champions, and so to throw a perfect game against legendary UCLA is something else for a kid from a small town from Northeast Kentucky."
As the visiting team, Alabama immediately took any pressure off Fouts by giving her first-inning run support with RBI-hits from Bailey Hemphill and Jenna Johnson.
Kaylee Tow provided the big blast with a three-run home run in the fifth inning after the Bruins pitched around Hemphill for the second straight at-bat to give Alabama a 5-0 lead.
Tow said she had a conversation with her dad the day before the game about hitting a ball over the centerfield wall if UCLA pitcher Rachel Garcia left one over the plate. That's exactly what she did.
"I didn't think I was gonna hit it over the centerfield wall," Tow said. "I was just looking for something really sweet and just trying to hit it hard.”
The Alabama offense tacked on an extra run in the sixth inning with the help of some defensive miscues from the Bruins and aggressive base running from the Crimson Tide.
The six runs Alabama scored tied the most given up by Garcia. The redshirt senior pitcher is on the U.S. Olympic team and was the 2019 collegiate softball player of the year. Alabama chased her from the circle after 5.2 innings.
"One of the goals tonight was to put the ball in play because we knew Rachel, she's an Olympian," Murphy said. "She's one of the best players in the country and one of the best pitchers.
The loss put the Bruins (47-6) into the other side of the WCWS bracket, where they will face the winner of No. 1 Oklahoma vs. Georgia. The team to advance will face tournament surprise James Madison.
Meanwhile, Alabama will get a day of rest, knowing it will need just one win on Sunday against the surviving team between Arizona, Florida State and Oklahoma State to reach the best-of-three finals.
But so far, Fouts and the Crimson Tide have dominated.
"Just to watch greatness is pretty cool," Murphy said. "All of you were witness to it."
