By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Addisen Fisher is used to winning and winning big. She hopes to keep it up at Georgia.

Over the softball pitcher’s four seasons at Bend (Ore.) High School, she had a record of 66-3, with 24 no-hitters and 11 perfect games. As a senior, she went 20-2 and led her team to a Class 5A state championship. In 134.2 innings in the circle that season, she struck out 261 batters and had an ERA of 0.36.

Going from that kind of outrageous success in high school to college, where the overall talent level is so much higher, was a challenge, Fisher said. 

“Everybody in every room, at every college program, was the best at their high school, the best on their travel teams,” Fisher said this week, ahead of the No. 15-ranked Bulldogs’ season opener Friday against Missouri State at Jack Turner Stadium.

“It’s hard to go from the expectation of striking everybody out or hitting 10 home runs or doing whatever, to where you’re facing a bunch of people who are in your same position. It’s very difficult.”

Fisher’s college career began last year at UCLA, where the 5-foot-11 right-hander had a record of 16-2, making the Big Ten All-Freshman team and earning first-team Freshman All-American honors from D1Softball. In 32 appearances for the Bruins, including 16 starts, she pitched 113.2 innings and finished with 100 strikeouts, a 2.59 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP.

Even though Fisher had a very good freshman season, success had to be measured differently from high school.

“Just going from (throwing a lot of perfect games and no-hitters in high school, with a minuscule ERA) to it being a good outing if you give up less than five hits; if it’s a shutout, woo-hoo! Even if you give up one or two runs, you did great,” she said. “So, just switching the high school mindset to college is definitely really difficult. But it’s also knowing that your team, everyone around you, has your back, especially your offense, and everyone on defense, and they’re working just as hard as you to have the best outing that they can in order to help the team.”

Fisher now has a new team, one that was almost her first college choice. At the time she took her official visit to UCLA in high school, Georgia was supposed to be her next visit.

“I ended up committing right after my visit to UCLA. It just felt right to me in that moment, so I committed there. Georgia was going to be my next visit after that, and I was kind of bummed that I missed the Georgia-Auburn game, because that would have been a good football game,” she said with a laugh. “I wondered what would have happened if I had taken that visit to Georgia, if that would have influenced my decision.”

After finishing her freshman season at UCLA, Fisher called her mother, Heather, and said she “was thinking about saying the ‘T’ word,” meaning entering the transfer portal. “And she was like, ‘Well, where are you thinking? And at the same time, we were both like, Georgia. I just trusted my gut feeling, and I came down here, and I loved it.”

Fisher played a lot of sports when she was younger, from soccer and volleyball to dance and skiing. She loves the competition and the camaraderie of softball, but also that’s not all.

“I always tell people what I love about softball is that it’s the only sport where you get to get all done up and put your hair in a bow, and then go play in the dirt for three hours,” she said. “I think I have a better immune system because I’m out in the dirt all day, and probably inhaling a lot of it.

“What I love most about it is that you get to be girly, but you also get to go kick butt and play in the dirt.”

Fisher’s best pitch has always been the drop ball, she said. “I didn’t really learn a drop ball, it kind of just came super naturally, and it was just something that was really effective for me,” she said.

Now, as one of Georgia’s top pitchers, Fisher has the chance to write a new chapter in her softball career. And she’s ready for the challenges ahead.

“I’ve always enjoyed having pressure on me,” she said. “I mean, I perform better under pressure. Pressure, it really is a privilege. Not everybody gets to be on this big stage.”

Asked to rate her excitement on a scale of 1-10 for this weekend’s games during the Red & Black Showcase, Fisher said: “Is a billion an answer? I’m so excited.”

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.