Rachel Garcia

Rachel Lauren Garcia (born March 30, 1997) is an American, collegiate All-American, right-handed hitting softball player at the pitcher position for the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference, originally from Palmdale, California.[1][2] Garcia led the Bruins to the 2019 Women's College World Series championship, where she was named the Women's College World Series Most Outstanding Player.[3][4] She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's best softball player in 2018[5] and 2019, and the Honda Cup as the nation's top female athlete in 2019.[6][7] She was also named a two-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and two-time First-team All-American in 2018 and 2019.[8] Garcia will be on the roster for Team USA softball at the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics.[9]

Rachel Garcia
Personal information
NationalityAmerican
Born (1997-03-30) March 30, 1997
Lancaster, California
Height5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Sport
CountryUSA
SportSoftball
College teamUCLA Bruins
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing the  United States
Pan American Games
2019 Lima Team

Early life

Garcia attended Highland High School in Palmdale, California. During her senior season she posted a 26–2 record with a 0.20 earned run average and 418 strikeouts in 175 innings, adding 20 shutouts, including 10 no-hitters and six perfect games, and was named the 2015 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year.[1]

College

Freshmen Year

Garcia would redshirt her first season due to a knee injury she suffered in high school. As a redshirt freshmen, she earned NFCA National Freshman of the Year along with all-conference honors and a Second-Team All-American selection. Garcia led all Pac-12 pitchers in strikeouts and was tied for first in saves, third in wins, fourth in innings, fifth in opposing batting average (.203) and sixth in ERA, while she had 14 complete games and was a part of 23 shutouts, including five solo blankings. In addition to pitching, she was one of the team's best hitters as tallied a .325 batting average, eight homers and 29 RBI and had 15 multiple-hit games and eight multi-RBI contests.

Garcia led the Bruins to a No. 5 seed at the World Series with her 23–9 win-loss record. In her debut at the Women's College World Series, Garcia pitched all of UCLA's games and left with a 1–1 record, falling in the second round. In her second game against Washington Huskies she struck out seven batters in a 1–0 loss.

Sophomore Year

For her sophomore year, Rachel Garcia was named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of The Year and the Honda Sports Award for softball. She earned Pac-10 "Pitcher of the Week" honors four times, for the weeks of April 16 – April 22, April 24 – April 30, May 7 – March 13, and May 14 – May 20. Gracia also repeated all-season honors including Pac-12 "Conference Player of The Year". Garcia also led all Pac-12 hurlers in wins, strikeouts and opposing batting average, was third in innings pitched and fifth in ERA and achieved a career best in hits and batting average. She struck out 42 batters in 23 innings in four games at the Women's College World Series, and was named to the All-WCWS Team.

Junior Year

Garcia set a record for the most awarded year for any individual softball player in history when she received her second USA Softball Collegiate Player of The Year, repeated honors from the Pac-12 Conference as both Player and Pitcher of the Year and First Team All-Conference, NFCA Division I Softball Player of The Year, ESPNW Softball Player of The Year, Honda Female Athlete of the Year and Honda Softball Player of the Year. She was also named a First-Team All-American and in leading the Bruins to the 2019 Women's College World Series championship, she was named the Women's College World Series Most Outstanding Player and All-Tournament honoree. Remarkably, she was also recapturing 8 of those honors from her sophomore year. This broke the record (9) set by Kelly Barnhill in 2017.

Team USA

Garcia saw limited playing time on the Team USA "Stand Beside Her" tour that was suspended due to the novel coronavirus in March, 2019. She will return to UCLA for her final collegiate year before joining Team USA, prior to the rescheduled Olympics in July, 2021.

Statistics

UCLA Bruins
YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
2017 60 169 17 55 .325 29 8 0 12 91 .538% 21 14 0 0
2018 61 174 29 59 .339 54 11 0 6 98 .563% 23 26 0 0
2019 61 172 34 59 .343 57 11 1 9 103 .588% 35 20 0 0
TOTALS 182 515 80 173 .336 140 30 1 27 292 .567% 79 60 0 0
YEAR W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2017 23 9 45 25 14 5 3 202.2 152 69 54 52 212 1.87 1.01
2018 29 4 39 27 21 9 2 208.0 104 48 39 48 315 1.31 0.73
2019 29 1 36 25 19 7 4 202.0 117 40 33 43 286 1.14 0.79
TOTALS 81 14 120 77 54 21 9 612.2 373 157 126 143 813 1.44 0.84

USA National Team
YEAR W L GP GS CG Sh SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
2020 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 7.0 6 2 2 1 7 2.00 1.00
YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB
2020 2 5 0 2 .400 2 0 0 0 2 .400% 3 1 0

References
  1. "Rachel Garcia Biography". uclabruins.com. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  2. "Rachel Garcia Bio". teamusa.org. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  3. "UCLA wins 2019 Women's College World Series against Oklahoma on Kinsley Washington's walk-off single". NCAA.com. June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  4. Nguyen, Thuc Nhi (June 4, 2019). "UCLA softball holds off Oklahoma to win NCAA title in walk-off fashion". Los Angeles Daily News. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  5. "Rachel Garcia of UCLA Named Honda Sport Award Winner for Softball". CWSA. 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  6. "Honda Cup Winner Rachel Garcia to be Featured on the Honda Float at the 131st Rose Parade®". CWSA. 2019-12-19. Retrieved 2020-03-22.
  7. "Rachel Garcia Wins 2019 Honda Cup". UCLA. Retrieved 2020-03-22.
  8. "Back-to-Back: Rachel Garcia Again Wins USA Softball Player of the Year". uclabruins.com. May 28, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  9. "2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team". Teamusa.org. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
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