Headed To UW Ben Miller’S Impressive Hitting Along With His Effort And Citizenship Earned Him Free Books And Tuition

Ordinarily a player batting .385, and with team-leading number of hits and RBIs, would have reason for satisfaction. Not Central Valley’s Ben Miller.

“For me, my hitting was a disappointment,” Miller said.

Miller had set the bar extremely high last spring during his junior season. He led the Greater Spokane League with a .504 average and was among the league leaders in runs batted in.

Although he slumped some during the summer, hitting .400, his 16 playoff hits helped his American Legion team qualify for state.

That, coupled with an impressive summer camp appearance at the University of Washington, has earned Miller free books and tuition to play baseball for the Huskies.

This spring, however, the hits were harder to come by for a variety of reasons.

“Mostly, early in the season I didn’t see enough good pitches to hit at all,” said Miller. “After that I got a few base hits, but a lot got caught.”

That may have been part of why Central Valley wound up fourth in the GSL. Injuries, inconsistent defense and lack of pitching depth all contributed.

Miller played with a sore back. Chad Adamson, the team hitting leader and base stealer missed the last seven games with a pulled hamstring. Catcher Justin Folkins didn’t play the first part of the year because of a broken finger.

“Baseball is an unforgiving game. Anything can happen,” said coach Ed Garcia. “I feel bad for the senior boys who weren’t allowed to play with a full deck.”

That doesn’t diminish the individual efforts of Miller, Adamson and Brian Chance, three of nine CV seniors whose high school careers are ending with this week’s district playoffs.

Miller has started three years for the Bears, playing a variety of positions. He was an outfielder as a sophomore and played shortstop last season.

This year he caught because of the injury to Folkins. He moved to second base, back to short and has played third since Folkins’ return. Last week he even pitched.

“I gave up four doubles,” he said.

Miller has always played numerous positions.

“From grade school on up, wherever I was needed I’ve gone there,” he said.

The selling point for the UW, beyond his obvious hitting ability and versatility, is his citizenship and effort, said Garcia.

“He plays hard every play, he’s always dirty,” he said. “When we were 5-0 and he was catching, he threw out everyone who tried to steal.”

Garcia believes he has the speed and arm, and needs only a minor adjustment to his batting stance to be a collegiate outfielder.

Garcia is also high on centerfielder Adamson who has the size, is CV’s fastest player and who was hitting .477 until injured.

“I think he’s a prospect,” said Garcia. “You can’t coach speed or mental toughness. Someone has to take a look at him.”

Chance, CV’s left-handed pitching ace, was also one of seven Bears to bat over .300 for a team that, after its hot start, finished 10-8 in the GSL.

“If you told me we’d have seven batters over .300 and be struggling I wouldn’t have believed it,” Garcia said.

For his part, Miller was satisfied with CV’s record given the things that happened during the season.

The Bears qualified for the district playoffs and Garcia would like his seniors to finish on a high note.

So, too, would Miller who showed signs last week of coming out of his slump and is looking forward as well to summer ball.

“It will be a good lead-in to fall ball at the University of Washington,” he said.