Report: Alabama's Montana Fouts will see doctor on Monday following injury
In the seventh inning of Thursday’s late-night thriller against Arkansas, Alabama pitcher Montana Fouts left with an apparent leg injury. During the first inning of Friday’s semifinal matchup against Tennessee, SEC Network reporter Holly Rowe provided an update.
Rowe spoke with Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy before the game and he said Fouts plans to see a doctor in Tuscaloosa when the Crimson Tide returns on Monday. Although he didn’t have much information, he confirmed it’s a lower leg injury for his star pitcher.
“All of Alabama nation holding their breath for the status of Montana Fouts, their All-American pitcher who injured herself in their game last night,” Rowe said. “I did talk with head coach Patrick Murphy … and he said she is going to see their orthopedic doctor when they get back to Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Monday. He said [he] didn’t have a lot of information right now. It is a lower leg injury.
“But Montana’s here, she’s in uniform. I will tell you, she was moving around fairly well last night after the injury. But today, a little bit more slow and steady with her steps.”
Alabama coach Patrick Murphy: The plan was for Montana Fouts to pitch the first two games of SEC tournament
Fouts suffered the injury late in Thursday’s victory over Arkansas. As she struck out Raigan Johnson, she pulled up favoring her left leg. After talking with the training staff and trying a couple warm-up pitches, she eventually left the game and Alex Salter came in to finish out the extra-inning affair.
After the game, Murphy didn’t have an update on Fouts’ injury but added it doesn’t impact the strategy for the rest of the SEC Tournament. He planned to only throw Fouts for the first two games regardless, and now the question is if she’ll be able to go for the NCAA Tournament if Alabama makes the field.
“She was going to pitch the first two and then we were going to let the other three, whatever happened − whether it’s one game, two games − doesn’t matter. That was (the other pitchers’) games to win,” Murphy said, via The Tuscaloosa News’ Maxwell Donaldson.
Ever the competitor, Fouts didn’t want to come out of the game despite the injury. However, Murphy encouraged her to have faith in her teammates, and she did just that — even taking Salter aside after the seventh inning and talking about what happened, as SEC Network cameras captured.
“Come on let’s go, someone else will win it for you. You got to have the faith,” Murphy said. “She did not want to leave.”
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.