SAN DIEGO -- Rachel Garcia, one of the most decorated players in NCAA softball history, has joined San Diego State as a volunteer assistant coach, head coach Stacey Nuveman Deniz announced Friday.
Garcia, who most recently helped the United States to a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the summer, garnered numerous accolades during her time at UCLA, including twice being named the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year (Honda Cup) for all sports (2019 and 2021) and three times the Honda Sports Award for softball (2018, 2019 and 2021). Garcia also won the Senior CLASS Award in 2021.
Garcia, who redshirted in 2020 while playing for Team USA on its Stand Beside Her Tour, also has been chosen twice as the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year (2018-19), and once each as the NFCA National Pitcher of the Year (2019) and the NFCA National Player of the Year (2018). Garcia was also the 2017 NFCA National Freshman of the Year.
In the circle, Garcia was 99-17 with a 1.43 ERA with 11 saves for her career with the Bruins, striking out 996 against 172 walks in 749 innings. Garcia tossed 28 shutouts and 66 complete games, while limiting the opposition to a .172 batting average. Her 2019 NFCA pitcher-of-the-year season featured a 29-1 record with a 1.14 ERA and seven shutouts in 202 innings, striking out 286 as UCLA captured the NCAA title.
At the plate, Garcia hit .337 for her career with 43 home runs, 175 RBIs, 103 runs and 32 doubles, while owning a .594 slugging percentage and a .430 on-base mark. When she was named the NFCA Player of the Year in 2018, Garcia hit .339 with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs in 61 games.
Garcia is also a four-time NFCA All-American (first team in 2018, 2019 and 2021, second team in 2017), four-time NFCA All-Region selection (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021), three-time Pac-12 Player of the Year (2018, 2019 and 2021), 2019 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, 2017 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and four-time all-Pac-12 selection (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021).
Throughout her career, Garcia was a multi-time national player of the week (three times by USA Softball and twice by NFCA) and a two-time NFCA national player of the week. Additionally, Garcia was an 11-time Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week and a four-time Pac-12 Player of the Week.
Garcia has been with the USA National Team since 2018, helping the squad wind the gold medal at the 2018 WBSC Women's World Championship, and the 2019 USA Softball International Cup, Pan American Games and Japan Cup, before settling for a silver medal at Tokyo last summer.
Garcia joins a program that has won a Mountain West-record seven regular-season titles. Last year, SDSU finished with a 28-16 record, its best winning percentage (.636) since the 2015 squad went 38-20 (.655) before falling in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional final to UCLA. It was also the ninth-best record in program history.
San Diego State begins its first season under Nuveman Deniz on Feb. 10 at the SDSU Season Kickoff. The Aztecs open with Middle Tennessee at 6 p.m. PT on Feb. 10 at SDSU Softball Stadium, and also play Stanford (Feb. 11), UIC (Feb. 11 and Feb. 12), and Cal Poly (Feb. 13).