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Montana Fouts Flirts with Perfection as Team USA Wins Gold at International Cup

Team USA clinches two medals with dominant performance in Oklahoma City.
Maren Angus|
Team USA's Montana Fouts was named the Most Valuable Pitcher of the 2026 International Cup after delivering a nearly perfect performance against Japan in the Gold Medal game.
Team USA's Montana Fouts was named the Most Valuable Pitcher of the 2026 International Cup after delivering a nearly perfect performance against Japan in the Gold Medal game. | USA Softball WNT on X

Montana Fouts solidified herself as one of, if not the best, pitchers in the world on Monday night at Devon Park in Oklahoma City.

The Kentucky native and former Alabama star donned the Red, White and Blue. She delivered a near- perfect performance in the circle, as the United States beat Japan 2-0 to win gold at the USA Softball International Cup.

Fouts carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before a pinch-hit single snuck through the right side in the top of the seventh inning.

"She had her rhythm, she was very focused, nothing got her rattled, nothing took her off course," Team USA coach Patty Gasso said. "It was outstanding. Out-standing." 

Fouts finished the night with eight strikeouts.

Japan couldn't find an answer for Fouts all night as she retired 21 of the 22 batters she faced but the right-hander gave the credit to catcher Dejah Mulipola, who called the game.

"She's just so experienced, and she's just so smart," Fouts said of her battery mate. "I was trusting her brain, and she executed. And my defense had our back." 

Fouts was brilliant and her defense didn't have many opportunities to make plays behind her but when the ball was put in play, outs were routinely made.

At the plate, the Eagles did just enough.

Jayda Coleman drove in the game’s first run in the second inning before Janae Jefferson followed with an RBI-double to extend the lead to 2-0 in the sixth.

Fouts, along with three of her teammates, was awarded individual honors after the game. Maya Brady was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, Dejah Mulipola earned Defensive MVP honors, Janae Jefferson was the Offensive MVP and Fouts was the Most Valuable Pitcher.

Jefferson hit a team-high .545, followed by Brady (.538) and Skylar Wallace (.455). Brady and Jefferson recorded two homers apiece to lead the team.

Team USA Elite Team Wins Bronze

The Team USA Elite Team used superb pitching and timely hitting to down Canada, 7-0, capturing third place on Monday evening.

Ally Carda and Teagan Kavan combined to limit the Canadians to just one hit. Carda pitched 4.1 innings, striking out five and Kavan recorded the final two outs to solidify the run-rule shutout.

Kendall Wells walked the Eagles off with a two-run double in the fifth inning.

Taylor Shumaker paced the offense, going 2-for-2 with a home run, a double, three runs batted in and two runs scored. Ana Gold added a solo home run while Aleena Garcia and Morgan Zerkle each collected an RBI.

Zerkle led the offense with a .500 batting average throughout the tournament. Bubba Nickles-Camarena (.444) and Sahvanna Jaquish (.375) followed. Gold led the squad with three home runs, while Zerkle hit two.

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Maren Angus
MAREN ANGUS

Maren Angus was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

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