(We made a list. We checked it twice. From now until New Year’s Eve, we are counting down the top ten headlines of 2019. Today, we look at #4 on our list.)
4. UCLA wins WCWS, Garcia wins 2nd straight POTY trophy
The Bruins ended the decade the same way that they started it: With a National Championship. In 2010, the team was led by Megan Langenfeld, Katie Schroeder, and Andrea Harrison. In 2019, it was Rachel Garcia, Aaliyah Jordan, and Taylor Pack who helped lead the Bruins to the title.
After an early exit in the 2018 Women’s College World Series semifinals, the Bruins looked like they might be in the best position for a title run since that 2010 season. The past decade was not particularly kind to the program; the Bruins missed the WCWS entirely from 2011-14, thought the squad has since made five straight appearances in Oklahoma City.
In early season matchups against Oklahoma, Florida, Washington, and Arizona – teams that made up more than half of the WCWS field – the Bruins went 7-2. The team began the season on a 16-game undefeated streak, spanning the entire month of February without making a notch in the loss column. Even then, a 2-run loss to Michigan was the team’s only defeat in non-conference play.
Prior to the start of the WCWS, Bruins star Rachel Garcia was named the National Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. A once-in-a-lifetime talent, Garcia finished the 2019 campaign with a 1.14 ERA and twenty-nine victories, with 286 strikeouts in 202 innings of work. Opponents hit just .162 against her, with only thirty-three earned runs crossing the plate with Garcia in the circle.
In the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series, facing off against Washington, Garcia pitched a 10-inning complete game and hit the game-winning 3-run home run in the 10th to send her team on to the Championship Series.
Though she’ll compete for Team USA in 2020, leaving her final season of eligibility as a Bruin up in the air for a while, Garcia has only cemented her legacy as one of the game’s all-time best, and in 2019, she finally got to add a WCWS championship ring to her already-overflowing trophy case.
