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OKLAHOMA CITY - Redshirt sophomore Rachel Garcia and redshirt freshman Aaliyah Jordan are two of the 10 finalists for the 2018 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, as announced on Wednesday.
The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award enters its 17th season and recognizes outstanding athletic achievement by Division I female collegiate softball players across the country. Previous recipients of the award include the first honoree in 2002, UCLA's Stacey Nuveman. Four Bruins have been Top 3 finalists for the award (Nuveman, 2002; Natasha Watley, 2002-2003; Megan Langenfeld, 2010; Ally Carda, 2014).
The Top 10 list includes two seniors (Paige Parker, Oklahoma and Vanessa Shippy, Oklahoma State), three juniors (Kelly Barnhill, Florida, Megan Kleist, Oregon and Amanda Lorenz, Florida), two sophomores (Garcia and G Juarez, Arizona State) and three freshmen (Jordan, Jocelyn Alo, Oklahoma and Meghan Beaubien, Michigan). The Top 3 finalists will be announced on May 23. The Player of the Year will be revealed on May 29 in Oklahoma City prior to the start of the Women's College World Series.
Garcia leads the team with a 1.01 earned run average, a 19-1 record and 197 strikeouts in 125 1/3 innings, while adding a .379 batting average, nine home runs and 44 runs batted in. In the circle, she has 12 complete games and has been a part of nine shutouts, including seven solos, while adding two saves and limiting opponents to a .132 batting average. Garcia is second on the team in homers and RBI, while also ranking tied for first in sacrifice flies (5) and third in slugging percentage (.621) and walks (19). The redshirt sophomore has earned five National awards this season, being named USA Softball Player of the Week twice (Feb. 27 and April 17), NFCA National Pitcher of the Week twice (April 17 and 24), and NFCA National Player of the Week once (Feb. 27). She has also received four Pac-12 awards (Player: April 16; Pitcher: April 16, April 23 and May 7). Nationally, Garcia is second in strikeouts per seven innings (11.0), fifth in hits allowed per seven (3.18), sixth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.57), 11th in ERA, 12th in sacrifice flies, tied for 29th in shutouts, tied for 35th in wins and 43rd in walks allowed per seven (1.28). She is first among Pac-12 pitchers in opposing batting average, third in ERA, fourth in strikeouts and tied for fourth in wins, while ranking tied for second in sacrifice flies and sixth in average and RBI.
Jordan leads the Bruins with a .467 batting average, 10 home runs, 61 runs batted in, 71 hits, 14 doubles, 119 total bases, a .783 slugging and a .520 on base percentage, is tied for first with five sacrifice flies, second with 52 runs scored and 21 walks and tied for second with two triples. She is also first with 25 multiple-hit games and 15 multi-RBI contests. Jordan has been named Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Week six times this season (Feb. 20, Feb. 27, March 13, April 2, April 23 and April 30), as well as Pac-12 Player of the Week on April 23. She is fifth in the nation in batting average, tied for sixth in RBI, tied for 12th in sacrifice flies, tied for 13th in runs scored, tied for 16th in hits, 23rd in on base percentage, 26th in slugging and tied for 31st in total bases. Among Pac-12 players, the redshirt freshman is first in average, on base, hits and RBI and second in slugging, runs scored and total bases.
The top-ranked Bruins begin their final regular-season series on Thursday at Easton Stadium when they host #6 Arizona State at 7 p.m. The game will air on Pac-12 Networks.