Jan. 24, 2006
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech softball team will begin a season nationally ranked for only the second time in program history (2005) as the Yellow Jackets are No. 24 in the preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll, released on Tuesday afternoon. Tech is the only team inside the Atlantic Coast Conference ranked.
The Yellow Jackets ended last season 51-14 and finished runner-up at the NCAA Athens Regional, hosted by Georgia. Tech won the ACC regular season and tournament championships for the first time in program history and led the nation with school record 159 stolen bases.
Michigan enters the preseason poll at No. 1 with 16 first-place votes, becoming the first team in poll history to attain that ranking outside of the Pac-10 conference. The rest of the top-10 is as follows: No. 2 UCLA (3), No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Texas (1), No. 5 Arizona, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 7 California, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Stanford and No. 10 Baylor.
The Yellow Jackets will face four of the top 10 during the course of the regular season and six of the top 18. Tech takes on top-ranked Michigan and No. 8 Alabama at the Leadoff Classic, Feb. 24-25, in Columbus, Ga. The Jackets will face archrival and 11th-ranked Georgia at home on March 29th, and will open the season against No. 18 Missouri at home on Feb. 10-11, in a three-game series.
Receiving votes out of the ACC were Florida State (22), Virginia Tech (11), NC State (5) and North Carolina (1).
Returning to the starting lineup for the Jackets will be seniors Christine Sheridan and Amy Hosier, juniors Caitlin Lever, Daisy Paez and Sarah Wood, freshmen Savannah Brown, Kacey Ivey and Aileen Morales.
Sheridan, a native of Pasadena, Md., led the ACC in batting last season with a .380 average and earned first team All-ACC honors. She started in 57 of 58 games played in for Tech at shortstop and earned the team’s Best Defensive Player Award.
Hosier led Tech with 39 runs batted in last season and garnered Easton All-America third team honors, first team All-ACC honors and was selected to the ACC All-Tournament Team. The Lakewood, Colo., native hit .356 for the Jackets and stole 16 bases, starting most of her games in left field.
Lever, a native of Amherst, N.Y., ranked 26th in the nation with 31 stolen bases and earned first team All-ACC honors after starting in all 65 games in right field. She hit .324 and scored 33 runs for the Jackets.
Paez, a native of Loxahatchee, Fla., started in Tech’s final 21 games as the designated player. She smacked four home runs in just 52 at bats and drove in 13 runs.
Wood was the No. 2 pitcher for the Jackets last season and went 15-4 in the circle. The Marietta, Ga., native ended the season with a 2.07 earned run average and fanned 71 batters in 115 innings pitched.
Brown, a catcher from El Cajon, Calif., started in 51 games for Tech and hit .270. She led the Jackets with six home runs and drove in 34 runs.
Ivey, a native of Douglasville, Ga., started in 51 games in center field. She hit .274 for the Jackets and stole 19 bases in 21 attempts.
Morales, a second baseman from Columbus, Ga., was named ACC Co-Freshman of the Year after finishing third in the nation with 44 stolen bases in 49 attempts, a single-season Tech record. She hit .297 as the leadoff hitter and was named first team All-Southeast Region and second team All-ACC.
ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Preseason PollRk Team 2005 Record Totals1. Michigan (16) 65-7 4942. UCLA (3) 40-20 4683. Tennessee 67-15 4374. Texas (1) 49-13 4365. Arizona 45-12 4216. Texas A&M 52-15 3917. California 63-15 3818. Alabama 43-16 3579. Stanford 47-10 35210. Baylor 55-15 29211. Georgia 45-21 27212. Oregon State 54-17 25913. Oklahoma 51-14 25514. Washington 43-16 20615. Northwestern 43-12 19516. DePaul 42-18 17317. Fresno State 35-22 14518. Missouri 44-15 12619. Iowa 51-10 12520. Auburn 50-13 11221. Louisiana-Lafayette 49-14 10622. Nebraska 50-17 9223. Florida 49-19 6824. Georgia Tech 51-14 5725. BYU 36-23 56
Others receiving votes: Cal-Fullerton (40), LSU (38), Florida State (22), Southern Illinois (16), Oregon (13), Notre Dame (12), Virginia Tech (11), UNLV (11), Arizona State (10), Bethune-Cookman (9), Long Beach State (8), Pacific (7), Oklahoma State (5), South Florida (5), NC State (5), Kansas (3), Hofstra (2), Wichita State (2) and North Carolina (1).
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