Montana Fay Fouts (born June 4, 2000) is an American former All-American

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a mem ...

and member of the United States women's national softball team. She is best known for pitching a perfect game against

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the

2021 Women's College World Series The 2021 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 21 through June 10, 2021 as the final part of the 2021 NCAA Division I softball season. 31 teams were awarded automatic bids as champions of their conferences after the Ivy League op ...

Early life

Montana Fay Fouts was born on June 4, 2000, in Charleston, West Virginia. After her parents separated, she moved with her mother to Grayson, Kentucky, at age 10; her father regularly drove around 80 miles from Charleston to Grayson to watch her high school games. She attended East Carter High School where she was named Kentucky's Miss Softball and Kentucky's state

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine playe ...

in softball in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Fouts holds the Kentucky high school softball ERA record for a pitcher of 0.16 earned runs allowed per game, and set a single-season high school record in the state for the most perfect games (9) and no-hitters (14). Fouts had 111 career high school wins with 1,483 strikeouts, 77 shutouts, 25 no-hitters and 15 perfect games.

College career

Fouts committed to Alabama in 2014, during her freshman year of high school.

Freshman year

Fouts made her debut for Alabama on February 8, 2019, against

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

, getting nine strikeouts with one run allowed and four hits. In her freshman year, she went 21–6 in games that she started, had an ERA of 1.39, and threw 193 strikeouts. Fouts led Alabama softball to a berth in the

2019 Women's College World Series The 2019 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 31 to June 4, 2019, as the final part of the 2019 NCAA Division I softball season. Thirty-two teams were awarded automatic bids as champions of their conferences, and the remaining 32 ...

where she pitched shutouts against

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and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Eventually, Alabama lost to Oklahoma 7–3 in the second game of the semifinals. Fouts was named the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year and was on the 2019 SEC All-Freshman team. In August 2019, Fouts received an invitation to try out for the United States women's national softball team competing in the

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, but did not make the team.

Sophomore year

During the 2020 season that was eventually shortened by the

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, Fouts went 3–3 with a career-high 2.04 ERA and 41 strikeouts.

Junior year

During the 2021 season in her junior year, Fouts went 27–4 with a 1.61 ERA and 349 strikeouts. She led Alabama to their first SEC tournament championship since 2012, defeating

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

4–0 in the final round on May 15, 2021, and being named tournament MVP. Fouts recorded 39 strikeouts in the tournament over the course of three days, setting a new tournament record. In the

, Fouts led Alabama to a 5–1 victory against Arizona with a career-high 16 strikeouts. Fouts pitched the sixth perfect game in Women's College World Series history, and the first since

Courtney Blades Courtney Lynn Blades-Rogers (born May 16, 1978) is an American, former collegiate All-American, right-handed batting softball pitcher. She was a starting pitcher for two NCAA Division I teams: the Nicholls State Colonels and later the Southern M ...

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in a 6–0 victory over

. In the AIAW 1982 WCWS, Jenny Stallard of USIU pitched an 8-inning perfect game against top-seeded Texas A&M, winning 1-0. During the semifinal round of the tournament against

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

, Fouts allowed seven runs before being replaced by pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl in the third inning, and Alabama eventually was eliminated after losing the game 8–5. Fouts and teammate Bailey Hemphill were named by NCAA to the 2021 Women's College World Series All-Tournament Team. In addition, she also won the 2021 NFCA National Pitcher of the Year, 2021 D1Softball Pitcher of the Year, and the 2021 SEC Pitcher of the Year awards.

Senior year

Fouts completed her bachelor's degree in psychology in December 2021 and began graduate studies in hospitality management in the spring 2022 semester. During the 2022 season in her senior year, Fouts appeared in 39 games, including 36 starts, posting a 24–8 record with a 2.10 ERA and 277 strikeouts. She earned four SEC Pitcher of the Week awards, the most weekly awards of any player in the conference, and led the SEC in strikeouts. Following the season, Fouts was named a top-25 finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and a second-team All-American.

Redshirt senior year

During the 2023 season in her redshirt senior year, Fouts posted a 25–11 record with a 1.49 ERA and 323 strikeouts. Following the season she was named

Softball America Pitcher of the Year The Softball America Pitcher of the Year is an award given by Wilson Sporting Goods to the best college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United ...

. She finished her college softball career with the Crimson Tide ranked second in program history in strikeouts (1,181), third in shutouts (35), fourth in wins (100) and complete games (89) and fifth in ERA (1.66). In 2023, Fouts was chosen as the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

winner for softball, the first Alabama player to win this award.

Professional career

On April 17, 2023, Fouts was drafted, in the sixth round, 23rd overall, by the

Smash It Sports Vipers Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States. The new league began its promotional campaign in 2021 and launched its inaugural season in June 2022. The league is unrelated to the d ...

in the 2023 WPF draft.

International career

In July 2022, Fouts played for the United States women's national softball team in the

2022 World Games The 2022 World Games were an international multi-sport event held from July 7 to 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. They were the 11th World Games, a multi-sport event featuring disciplines of Olympic sports and other competitions ...

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. She notched a save in the semi-final against Australia, as the USA went on to defeat Japan, 3–2, in the gold medal game. On August 31, 2023, Fouts was again named to the United States national team for the

2023 Pan American Games The 2023 Pan American Games ( es, Juegos Panamericanos de 2023, links=no), officially the XIX Pan American Games and commonly known as Santiago 2023, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization, s ...

Statistics

References

External links

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Alabama Crimson Tide bioUSA Softball Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouts, Montana 2000 births 21st-century American women Living people Softball players from Kentucky Alabama Crimson Tide softball players People from Grayson, Kentucky Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia Competitors at the 2022 World Games World Games gold medalists World Games medalists in softball Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in softball Softball players at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games