Alabama Softball pitcher Montana Fouts diagnosed with hyperextended left knee
The Alabama Crimson Tide softball team and their fans have been holding their collective breaths as they Wait for the injury results for star pitcher Montana Fouts. Fouts left Thursday’s contest against Arkansas with a leg injury. Head coach Patrick Murphy later confirmed via Gary Harris of Tide 100.9 that Fouts is suffering through a hyperextended knee and is considered day-to-day.
Fouts suffered the injury as she struck out Raigan Johnson. While delivering the pitch, she planted her left leg on the throw, and quickly hopped off the leg, and started to hobble. After talking with the training staff and trying a couple of warm-up pitches, she eventually left the game. Pitcher Alex Salter came in to finish out the extra-inning contest.
This is tough news for Alabama as their star pitcher’s status is now in question ahead of the NCAA softball championship tournament.
Alabama may have to replace the high level of production Fouts has provided the Crimson Tide this season. Fouts has as many games started as the other three pitchers in the Crimson Tide rotation, 29. In those 29 games, she has recorded 23 complete games compared to 7 recorded complete games for the other Alabama pitchers. Fouts has a record of 23-9 on the season in 40 appearances with an ERA of 1.44, which has helped fuel Alabama to their 40-18 record.
Fouts has been one of the best pitchers in the sport over her career, racking up 311 strikeouts — the most in D1 play. Alabama is one of just three schools to earn a national seed in the tournament every year since 2005.
Fouts was once again one of the top pitchers in the nation this year
Fouts, a fifth-year senior and the 2021 NFCA Pitcher of the Year, has once again been one of the top pitchers in college softball this season. She leads the nation in strikeouts with 311, including nine through 6.2 innings against Arkansas. For her career, she has more than 1,000 strikeouts to her name, becoming the fifth Alabama pitcher to eclipse that mark.
Fouts is also one of the highest-profile college softball players in the nation. She has an On3 NIL Valuation of $136K, which ranks No. 1 in the On3 College Softball NIL Rankings.
The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.
On3’s Nick Schultz and Austin Brezina contributed to this article