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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Four Bruins were named to the 2018 USA Softball National Teams, as announced on Saturday. Current UCLA redshirt sophomore Rachel Garcia and Bruin alum Delaney Spaulding were named to the World Championship roster, while current UCLA sophomore Bubba Nickles and Bruin alum Ally Carda were named to the Japan All-Star Series roster.
The World Championship roster will compete at the 2018 World Cup of Softball and World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women's World Championship, while the Japan All-Star Series roster will also compete at the '18 World Cup. The four Bruins were selected from the near 100 athletes who participated at the USA Softball National Team Selection Trials (Jan. 1-5) in Clearwater, Fla. A full list of National Team events, including exhibition games, will be released at a later date.
Garcia, who was named to the USA Junior Women's National Team in 2015, but did not play due to injury, made her first USA Softball National Team, while Spaulding is making her third straight appearance. Spaulding won gold at the Pan Am Championship last year, hitting .357 (10-for-28) with 11 runs batted in and nine runs scored. Spaulding also earned silver medals at the 2016 and 2017 World Cups of Softball, hitting .474 (9-for-19) with seven runs and eight RBI in '17 and .529 (9-for-17) with three home runs, nine RBI and eight runs in '16. At the 2016 Worlds, she earned her first gold with Team USA after hitting a pair of homers and driving in nine.
Nickles has worn the Red, White and Blue for each of the last three summers with the JWNT (2015, 2017) and the Elite Team (2016). Last year, she set event records for hits (20), batting average (.690, 20-for-29), runs batted in (30) and home runs (6) at the Junior Women's Worlds, earning a gold medal. Nickles also play at the World Cup last summer, hitting .550 (11-for-20) with 10 RBI, four runs and two homers. In 2016, she was 3-for-6 with a homer and three RBI at the World Cup of Softball, while a year prior, she went 5-for-15 (.333) with four RBI. Nickles picked up her first gold in 2015 at the Junior Women's Worlds, hitting .400 (10-for-25) with a homer, 10 RBI and 10 runs.
Carda will spend her fourth season in a row with USA Softball, having earned four gold medals and three silvers. In last year's Pan American Championship, Carda went 3-1 with a 2.15 earned run average in 13 innings to help the U.S. to a gold medal. She did not allow a run in 8 1/3 innings at the 2017 World Cup of Softball XII, striking out a team-best 14 and allowing just six hits and two walks, earning a silver medal. Carda was a member of the 2016 gold-medal winning Worlds team, throwing 6 1/3 scoreless with 12 strikeouts. She also picked up gold at the 2015 Japan Cup, where she was named the Most Valuable Player after throwing 14 scoreless innings.