Georgia softball relishes underdog status at Women’s College World Series

When it comes to this year’s Women’s College World Series, one of these teams is not like the others.

Of the eight teams that made it to Oklahoma City this year, six notched at least 50 wins. One of the two that did not, UCLA, is instead part of elite company, as it is among seven of the eight remaining squads that reached Oklahoma City in the past two years.

The lone outsider in this year’s tournament is Georgia, which enters the WCWS for the first time since 2010, which was also the last time a No. 16 seed made it to Oklahoma City. The Bulldogs are looking up at some of the toughest teams in the country and will need to pull some major upsets in order to stick around.

Although the long odds aren’t ideal, the Bulldogs are playing them to their advantage.

“In a lot of peoples' minds, we're not even supposed to be here,” senior pitcher Chelsea Wilkinson said. “I think that takes all the pressure off us. That helps us out a lot.”

Georgia (45-18, 12-12 SEC) certainly made the most of the darkhorse mentality against Florida in the Super Regional.

Florida (56-7, 20-4) dominated Georgia on the diamond in the past few years and hadn’t dropped two games to the Bulldogs in one season since 2012. But instead of struggling against the top-seeded team in the entire tournament, Georgia blanked Florida in the first matchup then eliminated the Gators with pinch hitter Kaylee Puailoa’s walk-off home run in the second game.

The Bulldogs’ mindsets of winning when it matters most is not one that suddenly developed once they reached the postseason.

“It's something we've been talking about all year,” Georgia head coach Lu Harris-Champer said. “Basically, if we can get hot for the last three weeks of the season, great things can happen. That's the key.”

Of course, the Bulldogs needed a solid regular season to get that far.

The team achieved that with a strong reliance on its talented senior class with players such as Wilkinson, Puailoa, first baseman Tina Iosefa and second baseman Alex Hugo along with breakout seasons from freshman third baseman Alyssa DiCarlo, as well as freshman pitcher and Jones County graduate Kylie Bass. Throw in center fielder Cortni Emanuel’s consistency at the plate and Brittany Gray’s establishment as the second pitcher in Georgia’s one-two punch, and the result was another shot at making it to Oklahoma City.

Bass has appeared in 28 games and started seven. She is 7-2 with four complete games, 64 strikeouts in 72-2/3 innings and has a 1.25 ERA, mostly in non-conference games. Her two losses are to then-No. 8 LSU (5-4) and North Carolina (2-1).

This Georgia team wasn’t much more successful in the regular season than in the past few season, so what was it about this group that put it over the top? According to Puailoa, it isn’t easy to explain.

“There's nothing really different from last year to this year,” Puailoa said. “The only thing this year is we've had some calls go our way, balls hit harder and hit farther. It's been the same mentality for all of us.”

As impressive as getting to Oklahoma City is, sticking around will be a challenge.

Florida State (53-8, 21-2 ACC) stands as Georgia’s first opponent and wields a 10-game winning streak prior to Thursday’s first game. If the Bulldogs squeak by the Seminoles, they will face either Auburn or UCLA, a pair of teams that notched four wins in four games against Georgia.

Work remains, but the excitement level is naturally high. It’s particularly special for the seniors, who have wreaked havoc on the school’s record books but had never reached the WCWS until this season.

Whether Georgia’s season ends two games from now or with the team’s first national title, the team’s members are prepared to make the most of the opportunity.

“We're going to soak it up and enjoy it,” Wilkinson said. “We've believed the whole season that we could be here. When we were working out in the fall, we had shirts that said, ‘Oklahoma City.’

“It's exciting, but we're not finished yet. We still have ballgames to win.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Georgia softball relishes underdog status at Women’s College World Series."