Lady Dawgs Advance to WCWS

The Lady Bulldogs have clinched a trip to the College Softball World Series tonight for the fourth time in school history. Coming into the post season ranked 7th, the Lady Dawgs had to fight their way through Harvard and Northwestern in the Athens Regional before taking on the #10 Lady Vols in a best of 3 series in the Athens Super Regional. Georgia only needed two games to send the Lady Vols home to Knoxville and advance to the College World Series.

Georgia took a 2 run lead in the first inning of game 1 Friday, then added 2 more in the 3rd inning before surrendering 2 runs in the 6th inning and 1 more in the 7th on an error. The 3rd and final out for the Volunteers came on a fly ball to center field.

Game Two was scoreless until the 7th inning. Despite averaging 9 runs per game during Regionals, Georgia was scoreless through 6 innings before scoring a single run in the 7th. Fortunately, the Volunteers were also scoreless in the first six before scoring the tying run after two singles and a hit by pitch. Georgia was up to bat first and lead off hitter Cortni Emmanuel hit a line drive home run into the right field to put the Dawgs on top 2-1.

Tennessee made a valiant effort getting two runners on base before Sophomore Ciara Bryan grabbed the 3rd and final out at the center field wall to send the Dawgs to Oklahoma City for the WCWS.

Other teams advancing include Vineyarddawg’s least favorite team, the Florida Swamp Dragons Gators, Oregon, UCLA, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida State and Arizona State.

Oklahoma has won the WCWS for the last two years. The elite 8 teams remaining will play double elimination bracket play until only two teams remain. Those two will begin the best of 3 series for the championship on Monday June 4th. Ahead for the Lady Dawgs in Bracket 2 is #2 Florida. Game time is 7pm Eastern & viewable on ESPN2. Win and they advance to play the winner of #5 Washington vs. #4 Oklahoma. Win out and it will be the first WCWS Championship for the Red & Black

If you’d like to root for the ladies in person, Delta has 6 non-stop flights to OKC on Thursday for around $650 round trip. You can also drive from Stone Mountain to OKC in about 14 hours or so. Single game tickets are potentially available via the NCAA official ticket exchange for about $35 per person in the outfield and around $100 for prime seats. There are plenty of decent hotels in the OKC area for around $100 or so per night.