How Oklahoma's Gabbie Garcia's Team USA Experience Elevated her Game

Last weekend was a big one for Oklahoma softball’s Gabbie Garcia.

And though it was far from the only reason, Garcia's experience last fall with Team USA played a big role in her offseason.

The Chandler, Arizona, native helped the Sooners open their season in her home state.

The season opener itself was played against Arizona State, the program where Garcia’s mom starred during her college career.

Garcia had plenty of family and friends in the stands during each of the Sooners’ four games in the Grand Canyon State.

“It was just fun stepping on the fields I grew up with, stepping on the same field my mom grew up on,” Garcia said. “There was just a lot of history, so for me it was overwhelming. Then to feel all the love from old club teams and parents and family members, it was amazing.”

And Garcia gave them plenty of reasons to cheer.

OU’s sophomore shortstop went 6 for 14 with a team-best four home runs during opening weekend.

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Sooners coach Patty Gasso said she has seen a change in Garcia since last season, when Garcia hit .351 with a team-best 20 home runs and 58 RBIs.

“She was pretty mature coming in but kind of a nervous mature,” Gasso said. “She’s always very vocal. She doesn’t want to be our captain but she is a captain on the field for sure. She kind of runs the infield for the most part. Very vocal, and I feel that she’s very, very confident in what she’s doing and very calm.”

That calm demeanor was evident in Sunday’s series finale, when Garcia — who hit the go-ahead home run in the top of the inning — ranged to her right to field Grace Jenkins’ hard grounder to short, and flipped it to Nelly McEnroe-Marinas to cut down Sereniti Trice at third for the second out in the bottom of the seventh of OU’s 5-4 win over Arizona.

Garcia spent time in November at Team USA’s training camp, which Gasso directed as Team USA’s coach and which featured past and current collegiate stars like Alyssa Brito, Jayda Coleman, Jocelyn Erickson, Montana Fouts, Kinzie Hansen and Tiare Jennings among others.

“Sometimes when you do get a chance to join some of the older, elite athletes with USA Softball and you get to train with them, it changes an athlete,” Gasso said. I think that has done that a little bit to Gabbie. She believes she’s that good.”

Garcia said the experience helped make her a better player in ways she didn’t anticipate.

“Getting the chance to be surrounded by all the knowledge and experience and getting to pick their brains and just learning from them, understanding a different perspective on a life of softball, because obviously they choose — this is their professional career, and this is obviously now where they’re thriving in. So just understanding the life after softball, the training, how much more goes into it, how they took what they learned in college and now apply it to their everyday life at that level. It was just a great experience to get to learn.”