Patrick Murphy 'wouldn't put anything past' Montana Fouts in Women's College World Series

As Alabama pitcher Montana Fouts prepares to play in the third and final Women’s College World Series of her career, she’ll look to go out on top. Fouts already has a special place in program history after notching her 100th career win this past weekend against Northwestern to clinch the WCWS berth.

With the victory, Fouts is one of only three pitchers in Crimson Tide history to record both 100 wins and 1,000 strikeouts, as she has 1,177 across her five seasons. Now she’ll look to add a national title to that resume, and Alabama coach Patrick Murphy isn’t putting it past her.

“After the game, one of you said, ‘wow. Your last game at the Rose House and it was your 100th win’ for Montana,” Murphy said. “I didn’t even know that. Until he said it, I didn’t realize that was the case. She didn’t either. You can tell from her reaction. But to bring a team three times — nobody has done it four times. For Montana to do it, and in her fifth year, people have seen her for five years. That’s difficult.

“She’s kind of reinvented herself this year and I would not put anything past her in terms of what she’s gonna do up in Oklahoma City.”

Fouts has fought through some adversity this postseason after suffering a hyperextended knee in the SEC Softball Tournament. That caused her to miss Regional play of the NCAA Tournament before returning for last weekend’s Super Regional series against the Wildcats.

She appeared in all three games, mustering 9.1 innings across those contests and recording a total eight strikeouts. That included the decisive one on Saturday that sent Alabama on to the WCWS.

Alabama has won just one Women’s College World Series title in program history, but Fouts seems as good a candidate as anyone to lead them to a second. Not only does she lead the Crimson Tide with an ERA of 1.48 this season, but she also leads the NCAA with 319 strikeouts.

Of course, there’s seven other teams hoping to do the same, including the reigning national champion Oklahoma. SEC foe Tennessee is also a part of the group, and Alabama dropped both the season series and an SEC Tournament semifinal game to the Volunteers.

The Crimson Tide are set to open WCWS play against Tennessee at noon ET on Thursday at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. But despite the regular season results, Murphy isn’t putting anything past Fouts in that matchup or the rest of the tournament, for that matter.