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Thursday, June 18, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
Romero on to Team USA
By TYLER SCOTT
Daily Sports Writer
It had been only one week since the
end of the Women’s College World
Series, but Sierra Romero already
found herself back in Oklahoma City.
In her junior season, the Michigan
second baseman cemented herself as
one of college softball’s top talents
and a leader of the NCAA runner-
up Michigan softball team. Now she
has assumed a new role. Romero was
named to the 2015 Women’s Nation-
al Team in January, and she has
returned to Oklahoma City for train-
ing camp with Team USA, which
spans the second week of June.
“Making the Women’s National
Team is something I’ve always
dreamt
about,”
Romero
told
MGoBlue.com in January. “It’s
such an honor that I will have the
opportunity to represent the USA
this summer.”
The two-time NFCA All-Amer-
ican also spent the summer of 2013
playing on the Junior Women’s
National Team, but this will be
her first experience on the offi-
cial National Team roster. Romero
joins former Wolverine Amanda
Chidester, a 2012 Michigan gradu-
ate, and her younger sister Sydney,
an incoming Oklahoma freshman
and Junior Women’s National Team
member.
“I am so grateful for the opportu-
nity and for being to play with such
amazing athletes as we go for the
gold,” Romero told MGoBlue.com.
“To top it off, I’ll get to travel with
my little sister Sydney. I’m extremely
blessed for the opportunity and look
forward to making the most of it.”
So far, Romero has capitalized
on all of her chances for success in
softball. In three years as a short-
stop and second baseman for the
Wolverines, she owns several pro-
gram records with a full season
still left to play. She already boasts
the most home runs of any Michi-
gan softball player, the program
record for total RBI and the NCAA
record for grand slams.
During her junior campaign,
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
worked to further shape Romero
as a leader. Despite her many acco-
lades,
Hutchins
maintains
that
Romero’s legacy
will be judged
based
on
the
accomplishments
of her team. The
veteran
coach
has
repeatedly
referred to former New York Yankee
Derek Jeter as a model for the type of
player she wants Romero to be.
The season-long challenge for
Romero to grow from a talented
young player to a leader was largely
successful. Hutchins named Rome-
ro team captain for her junior sea-
son and she adapted to the role, even
if it took some time.
“(Hutchins) talked about how
(Jeter) elevates everyone around
him to be better and do better,”
Romero
said
after
Michigan’s
WCWS win over Alabama. “That’s
what I focused on this year. It took
me awhile to understand what that
meant, but I found a way to put all
my focus on my teammates.”
Of the 16 players on the Team
USA roster, Romero is one of just
six still in college, meaning that
Romero will have the entire sum-
mer to learn from the older veterans
before she returns to Ann Arbor for
her senior season.
After training camp ends on June
13, Team USA begins a two-week
period of away exhibition games
before heading to Irvine, California
to compete in the tenth World Cup of
Softball beginning June 29. Both the
USA National and Junior National
teams will compete against each
other, in addition to facing ball clubs
from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Argentina, Venezuela and Japan.
Team
USA
will then play
a slate of Pan
American games
across
Canada
through late July.
Before wrapping
up the summer,
the
Women’s
National Team will travel to Ogaki,
Japan to compete for the Japan Cup
in August.
Romero has her eyes set on gold.
She’s made it to Team USA and has
less than a month before having
another chance to fulfill another
goal. And by mid-August, she’ll be
heading back to Ann Arbor, where
the Wolverines say the goals never
change. Led by their second base-
man, the Michigan softball team
will be striving to reach the WCWS
again. If that happens, Romero
would close out her college career
with her third trip to Oklahoma City
in four years.
There are still some boxes left
to be checked on Romero’s already
prestigious résumé, but her pur-
suit of those accomplishments will
begin this summer when she dons
the red, white and blue.
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Junior second baseman Sierra Romero was back in Oklahoma City after the season ended with the Women’s National Team.
Wagner going pro
By TYLER SCOTT
Daily Sports Writer
The drive from Ann Arbor to
Pennsylvania is just six hours of
Midwestern Highway. One week
after the Women’s College World
Series, Haylie Wagner set out on
that route, ready to begin the third
iteration of her softball career.
“I knew that I wasn’t ready to
be done playing after (my career
at) Michigan,” Wagner said. “Once
Michigan closed so suddenly – it
was over so quick – I knew I want-
ed to continue playing.”
The Friday after Michigan’s
loss to Florida in the WCWS
Championship
Series,
team
officials from the Pennsylva-
nia Rebellion contacted Michi-
gan
coach
Carol
Hutchins.
Wagner went undrafted in the
2015 National Pro Fastpitch Col-
lege Draft, but Pennsylvania was
offering a chance to sign as a
free-agent.
On June 9th, Wagner signed
her first PFL contract with the
Rebellion and is now available
to play in the team’s three-game
series against the Dallas Charge
this week. The left-hander leaves
Michigan’s program with a 100-
18 career record from inside the
circle. Her .847 win percentage is
third all-time amongst Wolverine
pitchers.
Now Wagner is entering a new
role, and she’s still transitioning to
life on the professional circuit.
“Going into playing with the
Rebellion, I need to remember to
still have fun,” Wagner said. “Just
because it’s more of a business
type now, and it’s a little bit dif-
ferent. I don’t really know any of
the girls so I feel like I’m a fresh-
man again, but I just have to go
out and play softball.”
Before her contract with the
Rebellion
officially
activated,
Wagner was with the team, but
unable to pitch in games. That
gave Wagner the downtime to
reflect on her senior season at
Michigan.
The philosophies of Hutchins
still resonate with Wagner as she
prepares for the third step in her
softball journey. It’s the words
of her former coach that will
remain as some of her strongest
influences.
“Hutch has changed me,” Wag-
ner said. “Without Hutch, I don’t
know what I’d do these last four
years. I wouldn’t be playing for
the Rebellion without her. I want
to make her proud. And I know
that she’ll be following me along
the way. And I’m just going to do
whatever I can. Not just to rep-
resent myself and the Rebellion,
but also represent Michigan and
Hutch.”
SOFTBALL
“I’m extremely
blessed.”