Rafael
”
Bubu
”
Garcia is only 13-years old, but he already has a gold medal on
his resume.
Rafael “Bubu” Garcia is only 13-years old, but he already has a gold medal on his resume.
Recently selected to play for the 14-and-under USA Baseball team, Garcia helped the USA squad go undefeated in the Pan-Am Games held in Coamo, Puerto Rico last week. He pitched three innings in the third game of the tournament against Guatemala, and was able to strike out five batters en route to earning the win.
“I was pretty nervous,” Garcia said. “I just started relaxing more (once I was on the mound) and started getting used to it.”
He said he used a combination of 82 mile-per-hour fastballs away and in tight on the hands to send batters back to the dugout.
The team took the gold a week later after defeating Venezuela 7-2 in the championship on Sunday.
To make the national team, Garcia had to go through a grueling tryout process, where he officially made the roster after a qualifying tournament in San Jose and then a tryout in Florida.
“It was hard – the conditioning,” he said. “And you have to play against people from different states all around the country, different styles of play.”
Traveling outside of the states for the first time in his life, Garcia said meeting players from countries in Central and South America was a great experience.
“I have jerseys from the other teams,” he said. “It was pretty hard (for our players to talk with other teams) because they all spoke Spanish. But I speak a little Spanish, so it was pretty easy.”
Garcia, who will attend Valley Christian High School next year, said this success is a stepping stone for him.
“It makes me want to work harder because there were a lot of good kids,” he said. “And I need to work harder to be better than all of them.”
