Brett Greenberg
The Tuscaloosa News
Sydney Littlejohn, Alexis Osorio, Jackie Traina and others. This is a small list of the All-American and Player of the Year arms coach Patrick Murphy has had in the circle during his 25-year tenure as Alabama softball coach.
Next to join this illustrious list is junior Montana Fouts.
Fouts heads the No. 3-ranked Crimson Tide's rotation that leads the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.41) and is second in the conference for ERA (1.55).
Fouts will look to continue her dominant season as Alabama (29-4, 9-3 SEC) heads to No. 8 Arkansas (31-3, 12-0 SEC) for a weekend series. The Razorbacks lineup features Braxton Burnside, who has the second-most home runs in the country and third-most RBIs.
Friday's first pitch will be at 6 p.m. CT., Saturday's game will be at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2, while the Sunday finale will be played at 1 p.m.. Friday and Sunday's games will be streamed on the SEC Network+.
Here are five things to know about Fouts:
She's an all-time high school great
Fouts was named the USA Today and MaxPreps National Player of the Year in 2018 and was a four-time USA Today and MaxPreps All-American as well as a four-time USA Today first-team member.
She is a three-time Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year (2016-18) and holds the best ERA (0.16) in state history. Fouts posted 111 career wins with 1,483 strikeouts, 77 shutouts, 25 no-hitters and 15 perfect games in four years.
Her presence was felt immediately
Fouts was named the SEC Freshman of the Year, was All-SEC and named Women's College World Series All-Tournament in her first year at Alabama.
Fouts was 21-6 with a 1.39 ERA, with 193 strikeouts in 181 2/3 innings.
Fouts pitched back-to-back shutouts in elimination games in the World Series, striking out a combined 14.
Strikeouts, strikeouts, strikeouts
Fouts has 371 career strikeouts through 46 starts, good for eight strikeouts per appearance. This season, she has six starts with 10-plus strikeouts and 12 total in her career.
Fouts carries the top strikeout-to-walk ratio in the conference and is second in strikeouts.
She can go the distance
Fouts has 10 complete games this season and 36 in her career. She has pitched a shutout in 14 of those.
She also was part of a combined perfect game in the opening weekend.
She's a teammate
Fouts is always crediting her teammates and pitching coach Stephanie Vanbrakle Protho to media when afforded the chance.
After pitching a complete-game shutout with 16 strikeouts against Mississippi State, Fouts responded with, "Bailey (Hemphill) has been great making me look better. I love throwing to her. Coach Steph has been calling great pitches all year."
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