The little girl wanted so desperately to play on her older sister’s youth softball team that her parents had to appease her somehow. So they sprung for an extra uniform for young Sydney Romero to match the one worn by her sister Sierra.
“I got to be the bat girl,” Sydney recalls with a laugh. “I would go on deck and swing a bat and pretend I was still a part of it.”
There’s no pretending these days.
Sydney and Sierra are both a part of the recently launched Athletes Unlimited Softball League, albeit on different teams -- Sydney with the Talons, Sierra with the Volts. And with Major League Baseball backing this earnest effort to grow softball in the professional space, a wider audience is getting to know this incredible family that has produced three pro softball/baseball players … and counting.
ATHLETES UNLIMITED SOFTBALL LEAGUE
The Romero family, which hails from Murrieta, Calif., includes:
Sierra, 31, an infielder for the AUSL’s Volts who holds NCAA career records in runs and grand slams from her time at Michigan. She has a .757 OPS through the Volts’ first six games.
Sydney, 28, another infielder for the AUSL’s Talons who was the 2019 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and a two-time national champion at Oklahoma, where she now serves as a graduate assistant coach. She has an .804 OPS with a homer and four RBIs.
Mikey, 21, yet another infielder who was taken with the 24th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft by the Red Sox and is currently with Double-A Portland. MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the No. 12 prospect in a loaded Boston system. He’s slashing .246/.335/.457 with five homers in 138 at-bats.
And last but not least …
Sophia, 19, an outfielder who recently finished her redshirt freshman season at Boise State and is described by Mikey as the best athlete of the bunch.
Sierra and Sydney will be playing against each other in the AUSL for the first time this weekend, when the Volts and Talons meet at Love’s Field in Norman, Okla., though Sydney's availability may be limited due to a tweaked hamstring. Their first showdown is Friday at 8:30 pm ET, and you can watch it for free on MLB.com and MLB.TV.
Then again, this will not be the first time they’ve competed overall. For one, their schools faced each other in the 2016 Women’s College World Series, where Sydney’s Oklahoma team prevailed.
And there were also all the battles within the household.
“It was competitive growing up,” Mikey says with a smile. “We were always competing with each other.”
Adds Sophia: “There was competition within everything. Like, who can wash the dishes fastest? But we’re a loving family, we’re really close, and baseball and softball have done nothing but give us so many opportunities.”
It has also helped them heal.
The patriarch of the family was Michael Romero, himself a longtime softball coach who bravely fought cancer for many years before passing away in February 2024. He was just 50 years old.
Michael was initially diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in 2011. He fought it off once and was cancer-free for roughly 10 years before getting diagnosed again in 2021.
It’s a type of cancer that ordinarily affects a person who is a heavy drinker, smoker or tobacco chewer. Michael was none of those things.
Despite getting assigned a fight he did not deserve, he battled courageously, regularly driving the roughly 120 miles roundtrip to get treatment in San Diego while still finding the time to mentor his kids in the game he loved.
“He loved it so much that he was constantly studying it,” Sierra says. “He would send videos to us of different drills and ask us what we thought of them. He was always trying to evolve. And as a coach, he was very honest with his players when they needed more work. He was that way with us, too.”
Prior to his passing, Michael got to see Sierra and Sydney launch their own New Balance cleat that honors him and his story. He got to see his son get drafted, got to see Sophia sign with Boise State and got to see Sierra and Sydney both compete in the AUSL Championship season in Rosemont, Ill., where they both homered in their final at-bats that he witnessed.
“He taught us standards, accountability, all those things that play a big factor in team sports,” Sydney says. “Me currently coaching, with my girls, I won’t accept anything less of myself or others with how tough he was and the standards he had for us. It’s really made me who I am and who I’m still trying to be. We’ve been very fortunate to carry that legacy.”
It’s a testament to Michael’s finesse as a father that none of his children rebelled against him or got burned out by the sport, as can easily happen (though the family jokes about Sophia being the “black sheep” because she briefly walked away from softball at a young age to focus on gymnastics).
It’s also a testament to Michael’s bride, Melissa, that so many athletic pursuits in the Romero household were juggled so seamlessly.
“All the sacrifices were absolutely amazing,” Sophia says. “It was crazy. We were going different places every weekend. Early mornings, late nights, a lot of money to be paid for tournaments and all that. There was nothing we wanted to do as kids more than to make them happy. When you have that support system, you want to do nothing but succeed.”
Traveling to see the kids at this stage of their careers helps fill the enormous hole in Melissa’s heart. The girls all carry Melissa’s middle name, Joy, and it serves as a reminder to find joy in all they do.
And all the Romero children continue to heed their father’s lessons and make him proud.
“We’re all very similar,” Sierra says. “We all believe in putting your head down and going to work. If you're not getting the results, you're probably not doing something right in your work ethic or you're missing something in your training.”
All the training -- as well as the hitting cage Michael installed in the family’s backyard -- has paid off. Mikey is working his way toward the highest level in baseball, Sierra and Sydney have reached the highest level in softball and Sophia, it seems, is not far behind.
“It would be so cool,” Sydney says. “I think about that all the time. ‘Am I still going to be doing this when Sophia graduates?’ It would be awesome, and I’m excited to see her grow into the athlete she’s becoming.”
For now, it’s Sydney vs. Sierra, in a league that helps the great story of this great family continue to grow.
“Of course, they’d love to be on the same team, but I think they love playing against each other,” Sophia says. “It makes us nothing but more competitive and have more arguments, so it might be a little dangerous. But I think it’s awesome. It’s such an opportunity.”