ATLANTA – For the third time in his career, FGCU baseball senior
Richie Garcia (Davie, Fla./West Broward HS) has been tabbed the ASUN Player of the Week. The infielder helped the Eagles (10-4) complete their second three-game sweep of USF this season, batting a staggering .583 against the Bulls. Additionally, Garcia chipped in a pair of doubles, five RBI and came around to score four times.
The Florida native is the second member of the program to receive weekly honors this season, as classmate
Mason Studstill (Titusville, Fla./Rockledge HS/Miami/Eastern Florida State) was tabbed the
ASUN Pitcher of the Week following the win over No. 21 FAU.
"Richie had an absolutely outstanding weekend," head coach
Dave Tollett said. "This weekend as a whole was one of our best offensive performances in a long time and Richie played a big part in that. He has such an important role in our club, both as a player and as a leader. He's had a really exciting start to the year and we're excited to see things play out for him."
Garcia had clutch at-bats throughout the matchup with USF and even plated the go-ahead runs during the team's 17-13 comeback win on Sunday afternoon. He turned in mutli-RBI and multi-hit games in two of the three outings this weekend and swiped his third bag of the season.
The Preseason All-ASUN pick paces the league with a .592 slugging percentage and ranks in the nation's top-100 in both on-base percentage (.524, 72nd) and runs (15, 73rd).
Garcia started off the season by becoming the 15th player in program history to reach 200 career hits and is two home runs away from surpassing former Eagle Jason Louwsma (2005-06) for fourth in the FGCU record book. He is currently on a 10-game hitting streak and is tied with sophomore
Joe Kinker (North Port, Fla./Venice HS) for the team lead with 13 RBI.
The last time that Garcia received ASUN Player of the Week honors was on March 12, 2018 and he was selected one other time (Feb. 20, 2017). He is the first Eagle to be tabbed for the weekly player honors since former teammate Keith Stevens was honored on May 13, 2019.
Garcia and the rest of the Eagles will now prepare to host No. 5 Miami at Swanson Stadium on Wednesday, March 17. The game will be a green out in honor of St. Patrick's Day and is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start.
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COACH TOLLETT
FGCU coach Dave Tollett currently owns a 618-369-3 overall record (.626) and a 199-109 (.646) record in the ASUN. He is the only head coach in the program's history and led the program to its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017. He is a five-time ASUN Coach of the Year and has guided the Green and Blue to five ASUN Regular Season Championships and one ASUN Tournament Championship. His team has been ranked nationally on several occasions, including as high as No. 9 in the country in 2017, and has coached 54 all-conference selections, 33 draft picks, three current major leaguers, 13 current minor leaguers, four ASUN Pitchers of the Year, four All-Americans, three ASUN Players of the Year, one National Freshman Player of the Year, one National Player of the Year and one seven-time MLB All-Star.
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 85 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
--FGCUATHLETICS.COM—
