By the Numbers: Montana Fouts' Dominance in SEC Play
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There was no doubt in Montana Fouts' mind. When she had the opportunity to come back for a fifth season with the Crimson Tide because of the COVID waiver, she was going to take it.
And what gift that bonus season has been for Fouts and Alabama softball.
Despite possible concerns of working with a new pitching coach for the first time in her Alabama career when Stephanie Prothro left for a head coaching job in the offseason, or facing some of the same teams for the fifth season, Fouts is putting up numbers on par with or better than her best seasons in 2019, when she won SEC Freshman of the Year and 2021, when she won NFCA and SEC Pitcher of the Year.
In large part because of her success in those seasons, Alabama made the Women's College World Series both years, making a run to the semifinals.
So here's a look at some of those numbers with one weekend to go in the 2023 regular season:
Strikeouts- 277 overall, 127 in SEC play
The category where Fouts dominates the most is strikeouts. Five years in, and some of the best batters in the country still have trouble catching up to her rise ball, or are caught looking after guessing wrong.
Her 277 strikeouts lead the SEC and country. Auburn's Maddie Penta trails closely behind with 266, and the next closest conference pitcher is more than 100 strikeouts behind Fouts in reigning SEC Pitcher of the Year, Arkansas' Chenise Delce.
During her best two-week stretch of the season against Missouri and South Carolina, Fouts reached double-digit strikeout totals in four straight games. She has accomplished the feat in SEC play six times this season and 11 times overall.
It makes things a lot easier on the defense when Fouts is in the circle simply on the fact alone that they have to field less balls. Freshman infielder Kenleigh Cahalan, Alabama's leading hitter and the only player to have started every game so far this season, said having the opportunity to play with Fouts, "definitely helped me make my decision easier" when deciding to enroll early.
Getting to watch her from a distance the last several seasons was one thing, but getting to play behind her on defense is a whole different experience.
"On TV, it’s awesome watching her kill it like she always does," Cahalan said. "It’s just different when you’re behind her because of how great of a leader she is on the field and off the field. She’s great on the mound. She keeps the infield calm. She knows she’s going to dominate, and that helps everyone else."
Fouts' highest strikeout total of her career was 349 in 2021. Alabama made a run to the semifinals of the Women's College World Series that year, but with anywhere from six to 20 games left depending on how far the Crimson Tide can advance this season, Fouts could pass her 2021 total.
Because of the unreliability of the pitchers behind Fouts this season, it is highly possible that the fifth-year pitcher could pitch almost all, if not all of the postseason innings for the Crimson Tide.
Complete-game shutouts- Nine overall, seven in SEC play
Perhaps one of the most impressive things about Fouts this season has been her ability to keep teams off the scoreboard, even when she doesn't have her best stuff or is facing an opponent for the second time that weekend.
Three times in conference play (Missouri, South Carolina and LSU), Fouts faced the same team twice in one weekend and did not allow a single earned run. (She did allow one run against South Carolina, but it was unearned and came on a dropped third strike.)
She has shut out five different SEC teams (Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi State and LSU) this season. The only other pitcher that somewhat compares to Fouts in this category is Penta.
With any shutout, some of the credit has to be given to the defense, but Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy also attributes a lot of it to Fouts' mindset and her growing comfortability with first-year pitching coach Lance McMahon.
"I think it still comes back to her will to win, her bulldog mentality on the field," Murphy said. "It’s just something special. You just don’t see it very often, in any sport— just the will to win is great with her.”
And of course, all the shutouts have helped lead to a lower earned run average, which leads to the next stat.
ERA- 1.43 overall, 1.12 in SEC play
Last season, Fouts had the highest ERA of her career. She finished with a 2.10, which would still be considered very good by most standards. But it seemed like some teams, particularly in SEC play, had started to figure her out. Nine times in SEC play in 2022 she gave up three earned runs or more, with five appearances where she allowed five earned runs.
This season in SEC play, she has given up three or more earned runs only three times with an in-conference ERA of 1.12, good for third in the league behind Penta and Tennessee's Ashley Rogers.
Outside of the two games in the Tennessee series early in conference play where Fouts allowed seven earned runs over 8.2 innings pitched, she has given up nine total earned runs over her 12 other starts in SEC play. Three of those nine runs came in the final inning of game one against Mississippi State. Two days later, she would shut out the Bulldogs.
To put that in perspective, if you remove her weekend in Knoxville, her conference ERA drops to 0.69, which would lead the league. (I know that's not how these things work and that's why we're looking at the wholistic picture, but this shows how dominant Fouts has been outside of her worst weekend.)
She's also been able to do this while carrying a heaver load than any other pitcher in the conference. Fouts has thrown more innings (99.2) in SEC play than any other pitcher and is willing to throw for her team whenever needed.
These type numbers become even more impressive when you look at the strength of the SEC. The conference has eight teams in the top-25 of the polls and all 13 teams inside the RPI top-50.
Record (20-8, 10-4 SEC)
Fouts is already one off her win total from 2019. Her 20 overall wins are 12th in the country, and the 10 SEC wins are good for the best in the league alongside Penta.
In the non-conference, she has earned huge wins over No. 3 Florida State, No. 5 Texas and No. 11 Duke that have helped keep the Crimson Tide in a position to host regionals despite more overall losses than fans are used to.
Alabama's three other pitchers (Alex Salter, Jaala Torrence and Lauren Esman) have combined to go 2-7 in conference play with Salter picking up the two wins in impressive complete-game performances against Tennessee and Mississippi State.
With the upcoming series at Ole Miss this weekend, one would assume that Fouts would get two of the three starts like she has all season. And then with postseason beginning the next week with the SEC Tournament at Arkansas, it is possible, though not desired, that Fouts could start the remainder of the games for the Crimson Tide this season if needed.
She had 27 wins in 2021 for her career-high mark and could surpass that total with the remainder of Alabama's schedule.
It is no secret that Alabama's offense has struggled this season. The Crimson Tide is in the bottom half of the league in every major offensive category, and only one team (South Carolina) has scored less runs in SEC play than Alabama, averaging 2.9 runs per game.
The good news for the Crimson Tide is that with the way Fouts has pitched this year, the offense may just need to put up a few runs per game to support the pitcher enough to allow the team to ride her arm back to Oklahoma City and the WCWS in her fifth and final season.
