The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/347495
hard, not trying to hit more home runs. Just playing." That strategy worked instantly, with Romero hitting .552 in her first 10 games while driving in 19 runs. She had only three home runs but had scored 12 times and boasted a .683 on-base percentage, reaching base in 28 of her 41 plate appear- ances. From game 11 to game 58, Romero's average slipped below .500 only four times. "I was very confident every at- bat," Romero said. "I never went into an at-bat thinking I would get out. I went up to bat every time thinking I would get on base, and if that meant I had to watch four pitches and take the walk, then so be it. If I get a pitch I could hit, and that wasn't very of- ten, I'd make the most of it." Romero understood coming into the season that pitchers would do their best to avoid throwing her a ball she could crush, but it is easy to recognize the strategy of laying off and far more difficult to employ the approach in the heat of a game. "Occasionally, she swung herself out of an at-bat, but that was ex- tremely rare," said Hutchins. "She maybe had five bad at-bats all year — some kids have five a weekend. Sierra was locked in at the plate. I've never seen any player in my coach- ing career that was as mentally fo- cused every time she hit as Sierra Romero was." In her mind, teams would pay for walking Romero, and they largely did — the sophomore scored 51 per- cent of the time when she reached base via a hit or walk. "If a team chose to walk me, I had complete confidence that my team- mates would knock me in, and they did," said Romero, who admitted it wasn't always easy to take the walk. "It's hard. It's a process. It was something I had to get used to be- cause I want to swing the bat. I want to intimidate the other pitcher, and the best way for me to do that is to hit the ball as hard as I can and let her know that if she makes one mistake I'm going to hit it. "I had to go up there ready to hit, but at the same time knowing that I could see four pitches and all four could be well outside the strike zone. I think that actually helped me this season because I was so focused on every pitch that I never wasted a swing or an at-bat." Romero is one of only two players in school history to lead Michigan in hitting and home runs in back-to- back seasons (Sara Griffin, 1995-96), and with two seasons remaining in her career, she has a chance to de- stroy U-M's record books when it comes to the slugging categories; the shortstop needs only 22 more home runs and 76 RBI to rank first all time among Wolverines, while she sits comfortably in the top spot for ca- reer slugging percentage (.867) by 190 points. However, she will enter her junior campaign much the same way she approached her sophomore season — wiping the slate clean. "I look at it like I don't have 40 home runs, but that my freshman and sophomore years don't matter. It's only about what I do as a junior