Guts and grit carry Alabama softball's Montana Fouts back to the WCWS | Goodbread

Montana Fouts gutted out a level of pain only she really knows for a storybook finish to her home-field career Sunday at Rhoads Stadium, closing out a 3-2 win over Northwestern to lift the Alabama softball team to the Women's College World Series.

She might tell you otherwise. She might do it with a wink.

For her final out of Alabama's super regional series, she fittingly notched a strikeout, her NCAA-leading 319th. For her final home game, she recorded her 100th career victory. And most importantly, for the final act of her career, she's headed back to the WCWS in Oklahoma City, the only rightful send-off for a pitcher of her iconic status in the sport.

VIDEO: Watch Alabama softball, Rhoads Stadium celebrate clinching trip to WCWS

Behind her was a raucous crowd that sensed something special for Fouts was at hand.

Every seat in the Rhoads Stadium house had a butt in it, even with the Northwestern contingent confined to four rows above the visiting dugout. Hundreds more crowded into the outfield berm known as the Brickyard, packed tight into the bench seating behind the right-field wall, or scattered elsewhere on blankets. The terrace overlooking the right field line stacked them two-deep and shoulder-to-shoulder.

Official capacity is 3,940. Sshhh, nobody tell the fire marshal. Next year − Sunday's game was the last at Rhoads until 2024 − they might just loiter from the McFarland Boulevard overpass for a free look.

Still, despite the boisterous support, it wasn't easy for Fouts. Nor was it perfect.

Northwestern's pitching limited the Crimson Tide to just six total runs in a three-game series, which made every pitch from both Fouts and Jaala Torrence critical. Fouts took her tenth loss of the season as the starter on Friday, only to pitch for victories out of the bullpen both Saturday and Sunday.

There was the frightening moment in Sunday's sixth inning when a hard-hit ball struck her directly on the left kneecap − straight to the injury − and caromed away for a single. Fouts shook it off after two warm-up pitches.

"We'll throw some dirt on it later," she said.

A seventh-inning solo home run off Fouts by Northwestern's Maeve Nelson narrowed the score to 3-2 and erased what was already a thin margin for error. She had to whiff the Wildcats' cleanup hitter, Hannah Cady, to finish the job. Maybe one day, she'll recount the pain she overcame to pitch three days in a row and earn two super regional victories.

Sunday wasn't that day.

"I've been telling myself and everybody that I feel like a million bucks for the past couple weeks," Fouts said, "and I'm going to stick to that."

That's a noble stance, to be sure. But every indication − from the necessity of a knee brace, to a slight dip in velocity on her fastball, to the rehabilitation that continued into last week − belied the notion that she was at 100% in the circle.

In the end, she overcame. Even Northwestern, despondent in the loss after taking the opener of the three-game series, tipped a cap to Fouts' determination.

"She's an all-time great for the sport. She's deserved everything she's gotten," said Wildcats outfielder Kelsey Nader. "It was an honor to play against her (and) our team wanted to play against the best."

That they did.

Fouts exited the postgame press conference embracing Jenna Johnson, whose solo homer proved to be the game-winning run, and revealed just what a return to Oklahoma City means to her.

"We're going home," she said.

"We're going home," echoed Johnson.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Guts and grit carry Alabama softball's Montana Fouts back to the WCWS