Alabama Softball: Buzz that something’s wrong with Montana Fouts should end

There is plenty right with Alabama Softball, even if there is something wrong with Montana Fouts – which there isn’t. Has she been the softball equivalent of Wonder Woman in every game this season? She has just been very good instead, though not in every outing. Overall, she is again one of the top pitchers in the nation.

Alabama Softball is 28-4 on the season and 6-3 in SEC play. The opening SEC weekend in Baton Rouge brought the, then undefeated, Crimson Tide back to reality. LSU took the first two games. The Crimson Tide rallied in game three with Fouts in the circle for a 2-1 win. Based on winning percentage in SEC games, the Tide is tied for No. 1 in the conference with Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State.

Fouts is now 15-1 on the season. The single loss came in Tuscaloosa, with the Kentucky Wildcats winning 9-4. She also has two saves. Montana is 11th in the nation for strikeouts per seven innings at 11.5. (published by ncca.com) The average will go up when updated with recent weekend games.

The past weekend the Crimson Tide picked up its first sweep of the SEC season, on the road against South Carolina. The Tide won 7-5 on Friday, 10-2 on Saturday and 7-5 on Sunday. Fouts picked up wins in two of the games while throwing a total of 26 strikeouts. Her 16 strikeouts on Sunday matched her career-high.

The most unique highlights of the South Carolina series can be seen in the tweet below.

https://twitter.com/AlabamaSB/status/1507813079257595907

The ‘Ship’ the tweet refers to is Ally Shipman, who flew around the bases for an inside-the-park home run. In stats published before the South Carolina series, no Alabama player is among the top 100 nationwide in batting average. Ship leads the Tide with a .395 average.

Getting back to Montana Fouts, she leads Crimson Tide pitchers with an ERA of 1.76. She has the eighth-best ERA among SEC pitchers, but at this point of the season, those numbers can be misleading based upon the level of competition played.

To the extent the Tide has slumped a bit, it is largely because of SEC competition. Alabama played and beat some good teams prior to SEC play but the pressure goes up once the league season begins.

Note: additional stats provided by rolltide.com

There is nothing wrong with the Crimson Tide being ranked No. 4 in the nation at this point in the season.