WKU Baseball’s Tristin Garcia Shines as He Returns Home

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – When Tristan Garcia steps into the batter’s box, all eyes are on him. Batting .333 on the season would make any coach turn their head, but his skills aren’t the first thing that pops out.

“Well obviously I was probably the shortest guy on every team I’ve ever played on,” Garcia said.

Tristan stands at five-foot-four-inches, two inches shorter than the MLB’s shortest player, former MVP Jose Altuve. But despite the height disparity, Garcia uses his hard work and stature to his advantage to me back to his high school days.

“He’s very unassuming when you look at him,’ Former Male High School Baseball Head Coach Jake Fiorella said. “The first word that comes to mind with him is grit. He’s just a really tough, hard-nosed kid. He’s not intimidated by anything. He’s not intimidated in the field.”

“Just growing up I’ve hit every day, no matter what the weather was every day just hitting even during I used to wrestle in high school too,” Garcia said. “But even in the wrestling season before practice, I’d go to the cages and find a way to hit or two buckets just every day. And luckily, that helps me on the field.”

Garcia spent three seasons at Alcorn State in Mississippi where he ranked third in D1 baseball batting average in 2021. But his swing has always been in the spotlight.

“Regardless of his stature the ball comes off as bad as good as anybody we have,” WKU Baseball Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “The ball exit speed is up there with anybody we have on our team.”

Now as the Tops second baseman, Tristan has showcase his skills with over 50 hits and 24 RBIs on the year. And whenever number seven heads out onto the diamond, know that he’s playing with heart over height.

“You know, he trusts his skills, he trusts his bat, and he’s not ever intimidated,” Fiorella said. “And those things really, I mean short of the the ability that you have, you know, if you just have confidence in what you’re doing and you trust,, the training plan that you have, you’re going to be successful.”

“In the sport of baseball size really doesn’t matter,” Pawlowski said. “It just doesn’t care how big you are, how athletic you are. Baseball players come in a lot of different shapes and sizes and certainly he’s one that you know can attest to that for sure.”

“Coming out of high school everybody kind of overlooked me being short and all but I do what I can to show I could be here,” Garcia said.