Incoming freshman brings top-ranked pitching to UCLA softball

At Highland High School in Palmdale, the softball field and the baseball field are separated by about 50 yards, and the football team practices in the gap between the two. The close proximity gave Rachel Garcia an audience of athletes during batting practice.

“Receivers and quarterbacks, (defensive backs) and linebackers – during hitting practice, Rachel would hit so many out there that they would just stop practice and watch,” said Daniel Morrow, Garcia’s high school coach. “She used to stop baseball practice, too. They would watch when the ball would bounce against their dugout.”

While most students find out about getting into UCLA in their senior year of high school, Garcia knew that UCLA wanted her since her freshman year.

“When I was in freshman year of high school they talked to my travel ball coach, and wanted me to come out to a camp,” Garcia said. “UCLA has always been like a dream school to me, since I started playing softball. When I finally took that visit (freshman year), I knew right away that that’s where I wanted to be.”

Going into UCLA, Garcia will be the first Bruin to win the Gatorade Player of the Year award for softball since 2010. And that wasn’t even her first time winning the award – she won it back in 2013 as well.

“She’s literally the top recruit in the country,” said UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, who has been scouting Garcia since she was in eighth grade. “She’s very similar to the Lisa Fernandez and the Amanda Freeds and several of the pitchers that have been able to hit and pitch and play defense.”

The stats give a picture of Garcia’s dominance. In her senior year at Highland, she went 28-3 with a 0.20 ERA. In 175 innings, she struck out 418 and walked only 13. She also threw 20 shutouts, including 10 no-hitters and five perfect games.

“She is one of the rare ones that has five or six pitches that she controls well,” Morrow said. “I would say that her curve, her rise ball, her change up, those are all unparalleled in the 32 years I’ve been a teacher and a coach. She has a slider, which I didn’t even know you could do with a softball.”

Because Garcia recorded about 80 percent of her outs with strikeouts, her coach actually decided to turn some of the team’s focus toward hitting instead of defense. The strategy paid off, as Highland hit over .400 as a team last year.

Garcia helped her team reach that .400 mark, batting .667 and hitting 20 home runs in her senior year.

“At the plate, she has potential to hit the long ball at any time, but also hit for high average,” Inouye-Perez said.

Garcia said that she wanted to stay close to home because she is family person. Her dad, her pitching coach for most of high school, has played a prominent role in her life, and Garcia said she wanted to see him and the rest of the family at the games.

“My dad has always been there, catching for me, going to other lessons; having him out on the field with me made it a lot easier for pitching and pitch calling. We were always on the same page with each other.” Garcia said. “I’ll miss it a lot, but I know he’ll be out there in the stands watching.”

Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan in Garcia’s senior year. She suffered an ACL injury during the 13th inning of the California Interscholastic Federation championship game. She goes in for physical therapy three times a week, and works on her range of motion on her knee alone every day. Her rehab is going well and Morrow has little doubt that she will be able to make a full recovery.

“I’m horribly sorry about the knee injury, but she will bounce back from that and be stronger,” Morrow said. “I’m certain that she’ll be a starter within one or two years.”

Aside from all of Garcia’s individual accomplishments, the most exciting part about Garcia for UCLA might be the unselfishness and team-first mentality that Morrow said she brought to Highland. Garcia lead her team all the way to CIF finals, losing 1-0 in extra innings. The Bruins have not been to the Women’s College World Series final since they won it five years ago, and are in the longest championship drought in the history of the program.

When asked about goals going forward, Garcia responded, “Just going out there and trying to win an NCAA Championship.”