In the final polls of the 2009 season released Tuesday, the Georgia softball team received its highest-ever ranking at No. 4.

In both the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll and the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, the Bulldogs ranked fourth behind national champion Washington, national runner-up Florida and Alabama. The ranking of fourth is the highest-ever for Georgia passing the program’s previous best of fifth during middle of the 2004 season.

The Bulldogs, the Easton Sports, Inc., Team of the Year, made their eighth-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division I Softball Championships, all under head coach Lu Harris-Champer, and they advanced to their first-ever Women’s College World Series by winning the Chapel Hill Regional and Athens Super Regional. Not content with just reaching the WCWS, the nation’s youngest team consisting of 90-percent underclassmen, made a run at the event and nearly reached the finals. After falling to the eventual national champion Washington Huskies in the opening game, the Bulldogs rallied to eliminate both the Missouri Tigers and the Michigan Wolverines to set up a rematch with the Huskies.

Georgia needed to win two games over Washington to advance to the championships series of the WCWS but was only able to come away with one victory, a 9-8 extra-inning comeback.

It marked the only time in 2009 a team was able to defeat Washington after the Huskies scored first and it was the only loss of the WCWS for Washington.

Georgia finished its 2009 campaign with a 47-12 record marking the eighth-straight season the Bulldogs have won at least 46 games and several school records fell in the process.

The nation’s top fielding team in 2009, the Bulldogs established a school record in fielding percentage at a national-best .981 by committing just 29 errors in 1,543 chances. Georgia also ranked among the national top-10 in slugging percentage (2nd – .574), home runs per game (4th -1.44), scoring (6th – 6.32 runs per game) and batting average (10th – .319). Georgia set new school records for home runs (85), slugging percentage and on-base percentage (.410) while tying the school record for sacrifice flies at 23.

What makes those record setting numbers even more impressive is their improvement over the totals from just a year ago when the Bulldogs hit just 26 home runs, slugged .381 and had an on-base percentage of .356. The 85 home runs hit would have established a new Southeastern Conference single-season record but was just one homer shy of Florida’s 86 long balls in 2009.

A record total of 13 different Bulldogs contributed to the 85 home runs.

Throughout the season, the Bulldogs established or tied several additional marks en route to finishing second in the SEC Eastern Division and third in the league overall with an 18-7 conference record.

Two of the more impressive records the Bulldogs set in 2009 include a school-best 18 wins via the mercy rule and a record 22-game home winning streak. The home winning streak included one victory from the end of the 2008 season and 21-straight this year.

Twice this season, the Bulldogs matched the school record of five doubles in a game (Feb. 20 vs. Tennessee; April 18 at Auburn). They also tied the school marks for triples in a game with three against Baylor on March 6 and home runs in game with five against IUPUI on Feb. 21.

- Georgia Sports Communications