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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.”

