It was the saddest moment of the of the CIF-SS softball championships when Highland of Palmdale’s star pitcher Rachel Garcia went down with a knee in injury before the bottom of the 13th inning in the Division 4 championship game on June 6 in Irvine, Calif.

Garcia had pitched her heart out with 24 strikeouts in 12 scoreless innings before landing awkwardly on her left knee during warm-ups and needing to be carried off the field.

The UCLA signee got the ultimate pick-me-up when representatives from Gatorade surprised her at school on Thursday, June 18, and revealed that she had been selected the Gatorade National Player of the Year.

“I think it’s completely crazy and I’m so honored to be accepting this award,” Garcia said after a ceremony at the Highland gym in front of her classmates, teammates, friends and family. “I don’t know … I’m speechless about it. It’s hard to process right now.”

Garcia, who was the Gatorade State Player of the Year as a sophomore, had a spectacular senior season. She went 26-2 in the circle and led the Bulldogs to their fourth consecutive Golden League championship and to the Division 4 finals. The 5-foot-7 right-hander had a 0.20 ERA and allowed 37 hits and 13 walks, while striking out 418 in 175 innings. She recorded 20 shutouts, including 10 no-hitters and five perfect games. She also hit .667 with 20 home runs, 57 RBI and a 1.412 slugging percentage.

Garcia is a pretty amazing girl away from the field as well. Bulldogs coach Dan Morrow teared up and had the gym close to tears with his heart-felt introduction of his star pitcher.

“Much has been written and said about Rachel’s athletic prowess and the records she holds,” Morrow said. “These things are awesome and great, but in my opinion Rachel’s greatest gift is her character.”

Morrow finished his comments by using sign language to say “I love you” to Garcia.

“When I was first getting enrolled at Highland, my friends were like, ‘You should take sign language because it’s fun,’ and I was like, ‘Alright,’ so I tried it,” Garcia said. “I fell in love with doing it. Going out and being able to communicate with the deaf and getting to know them personally is pretty cool.”

Garcia, an accomplished guitarist, volunteered as a youth softball coach for the City of Palmdale and she helped create the Golden League Gives Back through the Grace Resources Center to help the less fortunate people in her community.

“Every home game we had our opponent bring something, food, baby stuff, anything for the shelters out here in Palmdale,” Garcia said. “We donated all of it to Grace Resources. We started it this year and hopefully I can pass it on to one of our freshmen and they can keep it going.”

As a member of Team USA’s junior national team, Garcia was supposed to be in Oklahoma City since last week for training camp, but the knee injury has her sidelined for the time being. She will have surgery on Monday, June 22, to repair the tear and examine the extent of the injury.

“It’s doing a lot better,” Garcia said. “I’m getting my range of motion back. I did tear my meniscus. I have surgery Monday. They don’t know how bad the tear is until they actually go in. It’s just a six-week recovery.”

The softball community and Team USA can’t wait to see Garcia back in the circle where she belongs.

— by Carlos Arias for FloSoftball