OKLAHOMA CITY – Three Alabama softball players were selected as NFCA Division-I All-Americans, with freshman Montana Fouts, sophomore Kaylee Tow and junior Bailey Hemphill all earning second-team honors.
The accolade is the first for Fouts and Hemphill and the second for Tow, who earned second-team distinction last season. The trio improves Alabama’s total to 57 All-America awards over the program’s 23-year history.
Fouts was this year’s SEC Freshman of the Year, a top-three finalist for NFCA Freshman of the Year and First Team All-SEC honoree. She is 19-5 with a 1.44 ERA, throwing 16 complete games with six shutouts. She has struck out 174 batters over 160.2 innings, picking up five saves as well. Victories over ranked opponents for Fouts include Arizona, Georgia, Florida and two each against Minnesota and Texas. She earned five weekly honors from the SEC, including a program-record four Freshman of the Week accolades.
Tow sports a .320 batting average across 64 starts and tied the single-season school record with 66 walks. She is now the first Alabama player to earn All-America honors in her first two seasons since Haylie McCleney in 2013 and 2014. She has been recognized for her accomplishments off the field as well, winning the 2019 NCAA Elite 90 award for Division-I softball, given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at each of the NCAA’s 90 championship finals.
Hemphill tied the Alabama single-season record with 25 home runs, a record that has stood since 1998, and with 78 RBIs she is just two shy of tying that single-season record as well. She leads the team with 67 hits and a .376 batting average, adding 56 walks for a .527 on base percentage. Heading into the Women’s College World Series, she has reached base in 37-consecutive games, the second-longest streak in program history.
