By Adam Minichino
aminichino@onlineathens.com

The Georgia softball team recorded two firsts Sunday.

But Coach Lu Harris-Champer would agree the second was far more enjoyable than the first.

No. 25 Georgia, fresh off its initial appearance in the Southeastern Conference tournament title game earlier in the day, earned its first NCAA tournament bid Sunday night.

The Lady Bulldogs (57-15) will be the No. 2 seed in the six-team regional at Columbia, S.C., which will begin Thursday and will run through Sunday.

Each of the eight regionals will be double elimination.

UCLA (50-6), the 2001 runner-up to Arizona, will be the No. 1 seed in Georgia's region.

South Carolina (43-18), Eastern Kentucky (36-12), Maryland-Baltimore County (46-19) and Liberty (28-31) will round out the field in Columbia, S.C.

Seven SEC teams made the 48-team field, which is comprised of 24 automatic bids and 24 at-large berths.

LSU earned the SEC's automatic bid with a 1-0 win over Georgia on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers (53-9) will be the No. 1 seed in Lafayette, La.

Mississippi State (35-29), Arkansas (32-26), Alabama (46-19) and Auburn (38-25) also earned bids.

The Lady Bulldogs went 4-2 in their third appearance in the tournament. Georgia, which was 0-4 in tournament play under former coach Alleen Hawkins, defeated Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina twice. The last three wins came after Georgia lost to LSU 2-1 on Friday.

The College World Series will be held May 23-27 at the Amateur Sports Association Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Arizona defeated UCLA 1-0 last year to win the title.