Softball beats #12 Oklahoma in wild Romero Battle, 16-9

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

What an unbelievable game. Unbelievable. 

Gonna have to use the first names in this one to avoid confusion since the long-awaited Romero battle took place today.

Sierra Romero of Michigan vs Sydney Romero of Oklahoma. 

Sierra Romero opened things in the game with an RBI in the first inning followed by a Blanco single that scored Michigan's Romero from second to take a 2-0 lead right off the bat.

Looked like we may have had a run rule win brewing once Michigan took a 4-0 lead in the 3rd inning on a leadoff home run by SiLo and an RBI from Kelly Christner. 

That would not be the case. 

Sydney Romero hit a double in the B3 that would eventually lead to Oklahoma taking a 5-4 lead on a 3-run run blast. In the next inning, OU homered again which caused Hutch to make a pitching change. 

Tera Blanco gave Michigan the lead in the 5th inning when she hit a three-run shot, putting Michigan up 7-6. Oklahoma would tie it in the bottom of the 5th, though.

And then the 6th inning happened. Oh God did it happen.

Sierra Romero hit a 2-run RBI on bases loaded to give Michigan the lead once again. Then the very next batter, Kelsey Susalla, hit a three-run homer of her own to give the Wolverines an incredible 12-7 lead. 

But wait, there's more! Kelly Christner hit a two-run homer in the SAME INNING to put Michigan up 14-7.

Just a half-inning ago, this game was tied and now one run in the 6th away from possibly being a Michigan run rule win. 

Michigan could not tack one on in the 6th, but it wouldn't have mattered since Michigan was the road team and (obviously) Oklahoma wasn't going to go away quietly. Sara Driesenga got into a bases loaded jam and OU scored two runs in the inning. 

The crazy irony: Michigan walks (Sydney) Romero to avoid giving up a large number of runs. Sierra broke the Michigan program record for walks last weekend. 

It would prove smart as Michigan would tack on two more runs in the 7th as Kelly Christner once again gave Michigan two more RBIs.

Final score:
#2 Michigan 16
#12 Oklahoma 9

This is the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, CA. Michigan will be playing late tomorrow night as far as we're concerned.

They'll face Oklahoma State at 8pm and NC State at 10:30pm. 

 

Wolvie3758

February 26th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^

very exciting...I like how we kept on coming at them even when we trailed and they had all the monentum BAM we get a homerun....I watched it online

cutter

February 26th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^

If the SEC commissioner has his way (and is consistent in his concerns about student athletes truly having spring break off from competitive sports), then the softball team's trip to California this upcoming week won't happen in the future.

In fact, the women's softball is one of twenty Michigan teams (that includes football) who will be competing starting tomorrow (when spring break officially starts) through Monday, March 7.  Among the 20 teams is the football team and its trip to Bradenton, FL.

Some of the U-M teams are in Big Ten competitions.  Others are travelling to Florida, Alabama, Texas, Arizona and California for tournaments, practices and games against individual teams.

Is this really what Greg Sankey wants?  I rather doubt it since it's pretty clear that SEC teams in a whole host of sports are going to be competing during their respective spring breaks (not to mention Vanderbilt baseball's trip to the DC area last fall during their time off).  All of which goes to illustrate not only the hypocrisy of his stance on this matter, but also shows that his focus is really just on football and maintaining whatever competitive advantage he feels he can get for his conference.

ಠ_ಠ

February 26th, 2016 at 4:38 PM ^

That was quite a game. Anyone who paid for streaming of this tournament is definitely getting their money's worth.

About midway through I thought we might be headed for a bad loss, but the offense just wasn't having it. Major highlight for me was Vargas swinging so hard that it caused her bat to fall apart. Basically summed up the game.

Also, I'd just like to mention that the setting of this tourney is absolutely beautiful. Stunning location and looks like a great facility as well. I'd like to get out there one of these years.

DowntownLJB

February 26th, 2016 at 5:29 PM ^

Hayley Wagner graduated.

Megan Betsa is back - she was the strongest pitcher most of the regular season, but Wagner was the ace through the WCWS run.

Sara Dreisenga is back for a 5th year after medical redshirt last year.

Tara Blanco played mostly 1st base last year but is pitching more this year as well.

Alton

February 26th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^

More than three hours, in the sunshine in Palm Springs.  Good thing that was Michigan's only game today.  Oklahoma had a game against Fresno State (on a different field) that was scheduled to start right when this game ended.

(Also, OP, the NC State game tomorrow is at 7:30 PST / 10:30 EST). 

Kevin13

February 26th, 2016 at 4:44 PM ^

The site that does live stats wasn't working and it's tough to follow the game on twitter. Crazy slugfest today. Both teams can hit, but never thought the pitching of these two teams would give up that many runs.

 

This could be another fun season and team to watch. Let's hope they finish this season with a win!

RoseInBlue

February 26th, 2016 at 4:49 PM ^

Man, I wish Sydney Romero had come to Michigan.  Oh well.  We got plenty of ladies getting it done for us including big sis.  That 6th inning was a thing of beauty.  Kelly Christner had 5 RBIs in this game. 

On another note, I'm loving this FloSoftball feed.  It's a little choppy at times but I miss so many of these early road games every year so I'm grateful.

South Bend Wolverine

February 26th, 2016 at 5:43 PM ^

No two ways about it, the pitching is not where it needs to be quite yet.  The good news is that we've got one of the absolute top pitching coaches in the nation, two upperclassmen pitchers with WCWS experience, and a long season to improve in.  Just gotta stay one-pitch focused, get better every day.

Now to the fun side, holy crap that offense!  That wasn't just some chump pitcher out there for OU, that was a senior with plenty of experience.  OU's website is, unfortunately, awful, so I'm having a bit of a trouble finding out exactly who their ace is, etc., but it's not like she's a newbie or anything.  And of course anytime you shell a team for 16 runs, you're doing something right.  Good to see Kelly Christner in particular have a good game.  She was on fire today.

ಠ_ಠ

February 26th, 2016 at 6:33 PM ^

Nebraska upset Oregon today. Knighton looks like a legit POY candidate so far, hitting well over .500 with 7 HR, though they've played mostly cream puffs. Three game series in Lincoln may decide the conference this season.

Also, they will play Florida later tonight, so go Huskers. Florida is playing Washington now, which is another very interesting game. Both are streaming on flosoftball if you bought the membership for this tournament.

snowcrash

February 26th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^

Betsa got shelled, allowing 6 runs in 3+ innings and 2 home runs. She usually whiffs people left and right, but struck out just 2 batters of the 18 she faced.

Driesenga allowed 3 runs in 4 innings, which isn't great but it was enough to win on this day. She walked 6 batters which sounds awful, but 1 of those was intentional and it appears that 3 others were semi-intentional: they were all on 4 pitches. One was to a batter who had already homered twice that day, another was to Sydney Romero who came into the weekend with 6 extra base hits in 9 games, and the other was to a batter who had 5 extra base hits in 9 games including two home runs. It seems likely that Hutch instructed Driesenga not to challenge some of the hitters.

To be fair, the Sooners can hit. They average nearly 8 runs a game.