In 2025, Montana Fouts felt empty, a feeling that had persisted for two years.
Her collegiate softball career at Alabama, where she pitched a perfect game against UCLA in the 2021 Women’s College World Series and led the program to its first SEC tournament championship in 10 years, had ended in 2023.
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She grew up wanting to play in the Olympics and professionally, but after college, she didn’t know what she wanted to do.
“I didn’t really have that love for it anymore,” Fouts recently told the Deseret News. “I still loved the process — like, I love everything about softball. But I knew in that moment I wasn’t loving it enough to do what I wanted to do.”
So, Fouts turned to God in prayer, asking him, “If this is what you want me to do, if this is my calling … please help me because I don’t have it.”
“I just remember all of a sudden, I couldn’t get enough of it,” she said. “It was like, not addicted in a bad way, but it was like I was just itching to go pitch. And I didn’t even have a season to play yet.”
Fouts felt the same passion she felt for the sport that she did when she was 8 years old. She described it as a gift from God.
“This is something that I really want to do and always have wanted to do, and you can’t do it without that,” she said.
Two years after turning to God in prayer, Fouts is on the threshold of winning a back-to-back AUSL championship, having won the inaugural 2025 Athletes Unlimited Softball League championship with the Talons and becoming the league’s most dominant pitcher this season.
Fouts leads the AUSL with 53 strikeouts and seven wins for the No. 1 ranked Utah Talons. Her 2.56 ERA is sixth best in the league. She also set the AUSL’s single-game strikeout record, shutting down 12 batters.
And she’s doing it all while proudly living and sharing her faith.
Building a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ
At Alabama, softball had taken over Fouts’ life and consumed her identity.
“It wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong,” she said. “It was just like, ‘Softball is me, I am softball.’ And so then, when the outcome wasn’t going my way, then it was just like life didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like I was me at all.”
Fouts was born and raised Christian and thought she had a relationship with Jesus Christ, but in that moment, she realized she needed to dive “deeper into that relationship with him.”
“I feel like he used something that I was placing as an idol to show me that that’s not what’s going to make me truly happy, that’s not what’s going to bring the best out of me,” she said.
After that, Fouts began “to chase him” and stopped trying to follow her own plan for her life.
“Then I realized that’s when I was truly happy was just because I am loved regardless,” she said.
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Knowing that “it’s already written and it’s already won” by Christ, Fouts said, allows her to play fearless on the mound.
“Whether you win, whether you lose, we’re going to take things and learn regardless, but you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be,” she said. “I feel like as long as you have your eyes on the prize, which is him, and glorifying him, then he’s going to take care of the rest.”
When she looks back on what unfolded since her prayer for help last year, she can see God’s involvement.
“Of course, I’m going to prepare to stay healthy and to get stronger and all of the above, but I can’t do that without him,” she said. “So, when I sit back and look at like where we’re at now, it’s just like, I don’t know. I’m not in charge of the plan anymore.”
And she said she “wouldn’t want it any other way.”
‘I need to share his love’
Fouts sees glorifying God and sharing his love, which she described as the “greatest love of all time,” as her real “job.”
“I don’t know everything, I’m not the smartest, I don’t read the most, but I feel like I am very passionate about how he saved my life,” she said. “I want to take the opportunities that he gives me to be in front of people, to talk to people, to sign autographs, whatever it is, and to share his love, whether it’s just through me. Like, we don’t have to be talking directly about Jesus. But I think that’s my biggest goal is to love other people, I need to share his love, and what he’s given me, I know that he wants to give to everyone else.”
Fouts acknowledged that maintaining a relationship with God is an ongoing process. One way she tries to do so is through prayer.
“I feel like I have a continuous prayer throughout the day that’s just like me talking to him, just like as a friend and a father,” she said.
Prayer and journaling help Fouts slow down and make time for God in her life.
“I think our world is very fast,” she said. “Things are like life-changing every single day, and we don’t even realize it. So, I really think just being able to slow down and talk to him, even when you feel like he’s not there, he is.”
Fouts and the Utah Talons have already clinched a playoff berth as they pursue a back-to-back AUSL championship.
“Just really proud of some of the wins — all of them — but some of them that maybe we weren’t supposed to (win), like maybe we were behind and it called for a walk-off or like a silly little play to score like one or two runs that ended up winning us a game,” Fouts said. “I feel like that’s what I’m most proud of because that’s what we always talk about: We’re built for this, the tough moments, and I’m really proud of us for that.”
Utah currently holds the No. 1 seed and, if results hold, will earn an automatic spot in the best-of-three championship, which starts July 25. The Nos. 2 and 3 seeds will play a single-elimination game on July 23 to determine who advances to the championship.