Lady Dogs advance to 2nd straight CWS

ATHENS - The Georgia Bulldogs defeated the California Golden Bears, 10-1, in five innings Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 1,494 at the UGA Softball Stadium to win the NCAA Softball Athens Super Regional and advance to the 2010 Women's College World Series.

Georgia (48-11) advances to the Women's College World Series (WCWS) for the second-straight year after making the program's initial appearance at the event last year. California concludes its season at 44-19.

In addition to earning a spot in the WCWS in Oklahoma City, June 3-9, Saturday's victory also marked the 500th win at Georgia for head coach Lu Harris-Champer, who's overall collegiate coaching career record now stands at 709-243-1 over 14 seasons including a 500-179 record in 10 seasons at UGA.

Leading the Bulldogs to the milestone victory on Saturday were juniors Sarah McCloud and Megan Wiggins. McCloud worked her second complete game of the Super Regional limiting the Golden Bears to one run on three hits. She pitched all 12 innings of the series going 2-0 to improve to 13-1 on the year.

Wiggins went 2-for-4 with a grand slam to lead a 10-run, seven-hit offensive attack by the Bulldogs. In addition to the grand slam, Wiggins recorded an infield hit and scored a run on a wild pitch in the top of the first, and the hit extended her hitting streak to a school-record tying 20 games (Kim Wendland, 2005). She has also reached base safely in 30-straight contests.

California tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the first. After loading the bases, the Golden Bears' Frani Echavarria drew a bases-loaded walk to push across a run, the only run Georgia and McCloud allowed on the weekend.

The grand slam from Wiggins then came in the top of the second inning. The Bulldogs proceeded to load the bases with junior Laura Trout drawing a walk and sophomore Ashley Pauly and junior Taylor Schlopy both being hit by a pitch. Wiggins battled to a full count and hit a long fly ball to left in foul territory that Cal left fielder Jamia Reid elected to let land foul to keep the Bulldogs from plating a run on a sacrifice fly. With the at-bat still alive, Wiggins took the second full-count offering out of the park on a line drive to right center. The home run tied Wiggins for the team lead at 15, and it was her second-career grand slam. It also marked the second grand slam of the season for Georgia with the first coming off the bat of junior Alisa Goler on Feb. 13 vs. Central Florida.

Georgia doubled its run total and extended the lead to 10-1 with five more runs in the fourth. Sophomore Ashley Pauly led off with a bunt single. Next, Schlopy reached on a fielding error and Wiggins reached on a fielder's choice as Pauly beat a throw to third to load the bases. Goler followed with a two-run single up the middle while junior Brianna Hesson added an RBI groundout and sophomore Kristyn Sandberg contributed a run-scoring single. Freshman Sara Sikes entered to pinch run for Sandberg later in the frame at second, and Sikes stole third and scored on a throwing error.

Cal's Jolene Henderson worked a complete game opposite of McCloud in the circle and finished her season 20-10 with the loss.

The WCWS will be played at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, June 3-9. Georgia's opening game of the WCWS will come against Washington on Thursday at a time to be determined. Last year, Georgia and Washington played each other three times at the WCWS with UGA earning the only win over Washington prior to the Huskies winning the 2009 National Title.