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Miller earns coach's trust.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Daily Herald Reports

Two batters into Tuesday's Upstate Eight Conference baseball game at South Elgin, Lake Park coach Dan Colucci was second- guessing himself.

The sophomore pitcher Collucci had called up days earlier, right-hander Kevin Miller, began the first start of his varsity career by walking the first two hitters he faced.

"After the first couple of batters, I was looking at sending him back to the sophomores," Colucci said with a chuckle, "but he settled down nicely and threw strikes."

In fact Miller struck out the next three South Elgin hitters looking, stranding runners at second and third and setting the tone for Lake Park's 3-1 victory.

"In the first inning I was a little nervous, but I settled down and threw strikes," Miller said. "I took a deep breath, reset and kind of went from there."

Miller retired the side in order in the second but 2 more walks in the third inning, coupled with a Lake Park error, loaded the bases for South Elgin with two outs.

Again Miller escaped unscathed, this time by inducing a comebacker that he deflected and tracked down in time for the third out.

"We had opportunities to break the game wide open twice with bases loaded in one inning and second and third and nobody out in another," South Elgin coach Jim Kating said. "In games like we're playing now, you've got to come through. You've got to put the ball in play and get a run out of both of those situations and that changes the whole complexion of the game.

"We need to make adjustments...

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