Montana Fouts Finalist for Honda Sports Award for Softball

Alabama ace pitcher is a two-time All-American and the SEC Co-Pitcher of the Year

OKLAHOMA CITY – Alabama’s Montana Fouts has been named one of four finalists for the 2021 Honda Sport Award for Softball.

The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 45 years to the top woman athlete in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics”. The winner becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2021 Honda Cup, which will be presented June 28.

Fouts is joined by UCLA’s Rachel Garcia, Arizona’s Dejah Mulipola and Iowa State’s Sami Williams. The softball finalists were chosen by a panel of coaches representing the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). The Honda Sport Award winner for softball will be announced next week.

Fouts (26-3) has 330 strikeouts this season with a 1.48 ERA. She tied her career high of 16 strikeouts against Arizona in the Crimson Tide's opener of the Women's College World Series on Thursday. She needs 32 more strikeouts to break the single-season school record.

Alabama athletes have previously won 11 Honda Awards, including cross country’s Mercy Chelangat earlier this season. Other Crimson Tide Honda Award winners include gymnasts Penney Hauschild (1985-86), Dee Foster (1993), Andree Pickens (2002), Jeana Rice (2004), Ashley Miles (2006), Kayla Hoffman (2011) and Kim Jacob (2014) along with golfers Brooke Pancake (2012) and Emma Talley (2015). Jacob would go on to earn the Crimson Tide’s first Honda Cup in 2014.