In August 2010, Ricky Garcia was already enrolled to take classes at San Francisco State University only to realize he wasn’t ready to hang up his cleats just yet.
Garcia had a couple of scholarship offers available, and knew he would later regret it if he didn’t continue his baseball career.
“I was leaning on giving up baseball for good, but I changed my mind at the last minute,” said Garcia, a 2010 San Benito High graduate who is now a senior left fielder for McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, a Division II program that is competing this year in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA). “I knew if I didn’t continue I would miss it, so I told myself, ‘Why not see where this goes?’”
What was an agonizing decision five years ago has turned golden. Not only is Garcia playing well for a team that he said has a legitimate chance to advance to the Division II World Series—McMurry was 23-5 entering Thursday’s game against Arlington Baptist College—but Garcia has also found a school that will help him advance in a career long after his playing days are done: engineering.
In a couple of months, Garcia will graduate with a degree in physics in mechanical engineering. He’s already been accepted by Texas A&M University, and plans on attending school there to earn his master’s.
“I want to be in the design aspect where I’m actually working on the design of the product and prototypes and drafting,” said Garcia, who played for two years at Mission College in Santa Clara before transferring to McMurry.
Despite getting offers from both Division I and II level programs out of Mission College, Garcia couldn’t find the right match of playing baseball at a university that also offered his major of concentration.
When McMurry’s interest started to ramp up in late July and early August 2012, Garcia made the decision to enroll at the school a couple of weeks before classes started.
“I had scholarship offers from some Division I schools, but none of them seemed right,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do engineering, and a lot of the schools that were showing interest in me didn’t have close to the degree I wanted to pursue. I felt I needed to put education before baseball because I didn’t want to end up with a degree I couldn’t use.”
Entering the week, Garcia was batting fifth in the lineup, having started all of the team’s 28 games. A 5-foot-8, 150-pound right-hander, Garcia ranks among the team leader in several categories, including first in hits (42), stolen bases (7), runs scored (31), while ranking second in batting average (.388) and at-bats (109).
It’s been a season of production for Garcia, who has rebounded nicely after a torn labrum cut short his 2014 season, forcing him to take a redshirt. Fortunately for Garcia, he had been experiencing pain in his shoulder for several months, which made the decision to shut things down early last season easier.
Having played just seven games a year ago, Garcia was able to take a redshirt, which allowed him to retain a final year of athletic eligibility. Garcia underwent months of rehab, and credited McMurry’s Head Athletic Trainer, Janet McMurray—who happens to be a graduate of the school—for helping him make a full recovery.
“She was really awesome in that she got me to do what I needed to do and was really supportive in making sure I did everything right,” he said. “She made sure I didn’t get down on myself because it would’ve been very easy to do. She really made a huge difference.”
Indeed, Garcia has made his senior season one to remember. He’s hitting well, fielding well and using his speed to make an impact both offensively and defensively.
“I don’t know what it is about this year, but everything has come together,” he said. “I’m more experienced, relaxed and I feel more confident. I’m a senior and it’s my last season, so I’m just trying to enjoy things and have more fun, which completely changes your mindset and lets you let things happen instead of trying to force and make things happen.”
After a solid career at San Benito High, Garcia played for two years at Mission under Michael Luna, the former Balers coach who took over the Mission job in Garcia’s freshman year.
Garcia credited the environment in Hollister and its baseball tradition as the perfect place to develop one’s skills and become good enough to play at the collegiate level. Some of the players Garcia grew up playing with include Bryan Granger (Cal Poly), Darin Gillies (Arizona State) and Mark Hurley, a former Cal State Monterey Bay standout who recently signed a contract to play independent professional baseball.
“Being able to play with the same group of guys from when I was 10 years old to when I was a senior in high school made a huge difference because you’re always challenging and encouraging each other to get better,” Garcia said. “You don’t always get that same situation in the big cities, because kids go their separate ways after a while to different schools or other factors. Growing up here, you see the same guys all the time, and it made things unique.”
As the youngest of three children, Garcia got his start in baseball in a non-traditional way—through softball. Garcia has two older sisters—Erica, 32, and Kristina, 27—and growing up he accompanied his sisters and their mom to the batting cages.
“My dad actually never played baseball, and it was my mom who played some junior college softball,” Garcia said. “They took me to the batting cages as soon as I could hold a bat. That was definitely where I got my competitive juices from because my sisters definitely treated me with tough love. They always scolded me if I stepped out of line even before my parents would. Whatever they said to me, it was always constructive.”
With a deep and talented roster of players, McMurry has visions of winning the NCCAA tournament. Garcia couldn’t have drawn up a better situation when he decided to play at McMurry.
“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but it turned out to be a good experience,” he said.
