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UCLA Softball: Rachel Garcia is the USA Player of the Year, again

By Mike Regalado

BOULDER, CO - SEPTEMBER 29: The Bruins flag flies as the UCLA Bruins score a touchdown against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field on September 29, 2012 in Boulder, Colorado. UCLA defeated Colorado 42-14. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
BOULDER, CO - SEPTEMBER 29: The Bruins flag flies as the UCLA Bruins score a touchdown against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field on September 29, 2012 in Boulder, Colorado. UCLA defeated Colorado 42-14. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /
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For the second year in a row, UCLA softball’s ace pitcher Rachel Garcia has won the USA National Player of the Year Award.

On Tuesday evening, it was announced that UCLA softball’s redshirt junior Rachel Garcia won the USA National Player of the Year Award.

RELATED: UCLA Softball is Headed to the Women’s College World Series

This is the second consecutive year that the Bruin has won the award and is only the fourth softball player to win the award multiple times. It is also the third time a member of the UCLA softball team has won the award.

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This is quite the year for Garcia as she recently won the Pac-12 award for both Pitcher and Player of the Year. She also made the All-Pac-12 First Team, her third time making the prestigious list.

Garcia has been a force for the Bruins from both the pitching circle and the batter’s box. This year, she has been hitting .344, had 54 hits (tied for fourth on the team), had nine home runs (fourth on the team), and 49 RBIs (third on the team). Those are pretty good numbers for a batter, but this is only half of what Garcia has done.

As a pitcher, she has put up a record of 24-1 which was fueled by her 1.01 ERA (third in the nation), 253 strikeouts (15th in the nation), 3.80 hits allowed per seven innings (5th in the nation), 10.7 strikeouts per seven innings (3rd in the nation), and a 7.67 strikeout to walk ratio (4th in the nation).

Garcia helped the Bruins to the no. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Softball Tournament, and after sweeping James Madison in the Super Regionals over the weekend, helped UCLA to their fifth-straight Women’s College World Series appearance, which begins Thursday against Minnesota.

https://twitter.com/UCLASoftball/status/1133567580004864001

Congratulations, Rachel!