ATLANTA -- Last season, the Georgia softball team won 12 of its last 14 games but didn't have anything to look forward to.
This season, the Bulldogs already have secured their third Southeastern Conference tournament appearance and have put themselves in solid position to earn their first NCAA tournament bid.
It shows how far Georgia has come that neither of those things was on the players' mind Sunday following a doubleheader split with Georgia Tech.
Instead, there was an air of disappointment that the Bulldogs capped their best regular season by winning eight of their last 10 games.
"It's a game we're going to learn from," freshmen pitcher Michelle Green said. "We didn't have our best game here today, but we'll be ready for SECs."
Green pitched her third straight complete game, and Shannon McKeon's sacrifice fly lifted No. 25 Georgia to a 1-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader before a Glenn Field record crowd of 679.
In the second game, Tara Knudsen smacked a two-run home run in the third inning to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 2-1 win.
Georgia, which closed the regular season 53-13, mustered only seven hits on the day after scoring 59 runs and getting 85 hits over the last 11 games. Fatigue may have caught up to the Bulldogs after a stretch of 10 games in eight days.
But Georgia coach Lu Harris-Champer said her players will turn their attention to final exams and take advantage of the time of they off have before the SEC tournament.
The Bulldogs have clinched the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will play the No. 5 seed on Thursday, May 9, at 6 p.m. in Chattanooga, Tenn.
And while Harris-Champer would have liked to have swept the doubleheader to bolster Georgia's NCAA hopes, she feels the Bulldogs already have made a strong case for themselves.
"I think we have definitely proven that if you look at the head-to-head records," Harris-Champer said. "It is a matter of time now, and it is in our hands."
The SEC tournament winner receives an automatic bid to the 48-team NCAA field. Twenty-four teams will receive automatic bids, and 24 others will receive at-large bids.
Georgia, which is ranked sixth in the Central region, has an 18-10 record against teams ranked in the NCAA's regional rankings.
Georgia figures to have an edge over Georgia Tech (third in the South region) because the Yellow Jackets (46-16) only have one other win (2-1 over Iowa on March 8) over a ranked team.
Green (18-3) helped the Bulldogs earn at least a split as she pitched her third straight complete game. She struck out four and walked two.
"I definitely was back in a rhythm," Green said. "I am just going out there and pitching my game again, instead of letting other things get in my head."
In game two, Jessica Sallinger (22-7) made Knudsen's 16th home run of the season home run stand up as she limited Georgia to four hits and struck out six in her complete-game effort.
Sallinger worked out of trouble in the fifth when she struck out pinch hitter Julie Raiskums looking on a 3-2 pitch with runners on second and third and two outs.
Sallinger also wiggled out of a jam in the seventh when the Bulldogs put runners on second and third with one out. McKeon scored on Amy Brannan's fielder's choice to make it 2-1, but Sallinger induced leadoff hitter Nicole Barber to pop up to end the game with a runner on second.
"She had more break on it than we have seen on it lately," Green said. "We needed to adjust and we never did."
The seven hits were the fewest the Bulldogs have had in back-to-back games since they had three hits (five in the series) against LSU on March 30-31.
The loss also snapped Georgia's 46-game winning streak against non-conference opponents, dating back to a 7-2 loss to No. 8 Fresno State on Feb. 24, 2001. The Bulldogs are 35-1 outside of the SEC this season.
