Pitcher throws perfect game with 23 strikeouts, still loses

In case you thought that a pitcher couldn’t lose while tossing a perfect game, we’re here to tell you that that is not the case. We have what happened to a high school softball pitcher Saturday as evidence to the contrary.

Rachel Garcia, a senior pitcher from Highland High School (Palmdale, Calif.) and UCLA commit, pitched a perfect game in the finals of the Thousand Oaks Tournament Saturday, yet her team lost the game 1-0 and finished second in the tournament. Garcia even struck out an incredible 23 of 24 batters and still lost.

So, how on earth did she lose? It has to do with terrible tiebreaker rules.

Garcia, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year in California as a sophomore and is a member of the USA Junior Women’s National Team, was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Camarillo’s Emily Orosco. Both pitchers were perfect through six before Orosco, who allowed two hits in the game, finally gave up a bunt single in the seventh. As the LA Daily News’ Tony Ciniglio reports, Garcia struck out the first 18 batters she faced and it wasn’t until the seventh that a Scorpions player even put a ball in play against her.

With the game scoreless through seven innings, they went to international tiebreaker rules, which means each half inning begins with a runner placed on second. Camarillo, which was the visiting team, saw its runner advance to third on a wild pitch by Garcia and then score when the catcher threw the ball into left field trying to get her out. The Highland Bulldogs were unable to score in the bottom half of the inning and lost 1-0 in eight innings.

Garcia’s line for the game reads as a perfect game: She faced the minimum and did not allow any baserunners for her eight innings pitched while striking out 23 of 24 batters she faced. Yet she and the team took the loss in that one.

Garcia, who is one of the best high school players in the country, pitched a two-hit shutout with 18 strikeouts in a win over Lakewood in the tournament semifinals earlier in the day. She entered Saturday 16-1 with a 0.36 ERA, 0.42 WHIP, 13 shutouts in 17 starts, and 215 strikeouts in 98 innings. She also entered the day batting .618 with eight home runs and an OPS approaching 2.000. Let’s also clarify that despite striking out 23 times, Camarillo is not some scrub team. They are 15-7 on the season, reached the tournament finals, and are ranked by MaxPreps’ algorithm as the 54th-best team in the country and No. 30 team in California. Four of their hitters entered the day batting better than .375, and a few of their players are headed to major Division I colleges.

As the LA Daily News’ headline writers put it, it was a perfect game for Garcia with an imperfect ending.