With pitching and defense, Florida State brings an end to Sierra Romero's epic career

— -- OKLAHOMA CITY -- No. 8 Florida State has been to the Women's College World Series more often than any program without a national championship. But for the first time since 2002, the Seminoles will play in a national semifinal after a 1-0 win over No. 2 Michigan in an elimination game. Morgan Klaevemann scored the game's only run on a wild pitch in the third inning.

The Seminoles next play No. 4 Auburn on Sunday night (ESPN2, 7 ET). Should Auburn win, it advances to the best-of-three championship round. If Florida State wins, the same two teams will play a winner-take-all finale Monday night for a place in the title series.

Here are three things you need to know in the meantime:

1. Pitching sets up well for Seminoles

It isn't easy to make it through the losers' bracket to reach the championship series. The last team to do it at all was Florida in 2011. The last team to do so after losing its opening game, as would be the case for Florida State this season, was Arizona in 2010. It's a long road that must be traveled in a short amount of time, which strains pitchers. But the weather delays that altered the schedule this year may work to Florida State's advantage.

Florida State must beat Auburn twice, as previously mentioned, but because those games would take place on different days, it will have the ability to divide the work between two rested co-aces (or at least as rested as anyone is this time of year). And it will have a rested Meghan King on Sunday evening because Jessica Burroughs was brilliant against the Wolverines. She allowed just three hits and two walks in seven shutout innings, her second complete-game shutout this postseason.

She not only won the game, she gave her team a chance to win those that come next.

2. Seminoles put defensive woes to rest

It was an inauspicious debut for Florida State's defense this week, to say the least. The Seminoles matched a record with seven errors in an opening loss to Georgia. But the same team that committed just one error through the ACC tournament and NCAA regional and super regionals combined has given a better account of itself ever since.

Shortstop Cali Harrod had the highlight of the afternoon Sunday, making a great catch in short left field on a Sierra Lawrence liner that appeared destined to land for a leadoff single in the top of the first inning. Burroughs struck out six batters, a modest total by her standards, but the defense behind her handled every chance without a hiccup. It hasn't made an error in the past two games.

3. End of the road for an all-time great

It happens every season, of course, but the past two days have been bittersweet for softball fans -- not just Alabama and Michigan fans -- who had a great deal of fun watching Alabama's Haylie McCleney and Michigan's Sierra Romero play the past four years. A day after McCleney played her final game, Romero, the USA Softball Player of the Year (as well as espnW's national player of the year as a junior in 2015) did the same.

While the final day was forgettable -- she reached base just once with a walk -- Romero finishes her college career eighth in NCAA Division I history in home runs and fourth in slugging percentage. She also finished just outside the top 25 in career batting average. Romero brought the Wolverines to Oklahoma City three times and back to a lead role in the college game.

But the numbers never told the whole story for someone who embodies all that Carol Hutchins means when she talks about the kind of women she wants her program to produce.

"A Michigan woman is strong, smart, independent, just a fighter," Romero said this week. "One of the biggest things that Hutch has taught us is just how to have that confidence. If you want something, you go and get it. I feel like 'Michigan woman' is a perfect description of that."

And she the embodiment of the description.

The sport will miss Romero, as it will miss McCleney, and not just for what they did on the field.