When Andrew’s Jacob Miller was 6 years old, he had to talk his dad into letting him play T-ball.
Once Miller got on a team, he was hooked.
“My dad hates T-ball,” Miller said. “He just wanted to work with me on the side. But I always wanted a jersey so bad. My dad was like, ‘All right, we’ll put him in the league.’ I forced my way in.
“I’ve loved baseball ever since.”
Miller, a senior infielder, is also loving the big season he’s having for the Thunderbolts.
He continued to cruise Monday, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs to lead visiting Andrew to an 8-4 victory over Sandburg in a SouthWest Suburban Conference crossover game in Orland Park.
Jack LoConte finished 2-for-2, reached base four times and scored three runs for the Thunderbolts (13-4). Austin Cusack added two RBIs and Ryan Burns scored twice.
Murray State recruit Jackson Ugo stuck out six and allowed four earned runs over six innings to earn the win on the mound.
Nick Morsovillo went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI for Sandburg (10-4), while Ethan Highfill had two RBIs and Dominic Palumbo scored two runs.
Miller, meanwhile, produced an RBI double in the first inning, a run-scoring single in the third and a two-run base hit in the fourth.
“Jacob played great for us last year and he’s done a great job this year,” Andrew coach Dave DeHaan said of Miller. “He’s just a quiet leader who works hard, is tough and is kind of what Andrew baseball is all about.
“He’s a guy we want up there in big situations, that’s for sure.”
Miller is hitting in the cleanup spot for the Thunderbolts, a role he has become accustomed to over his baseball career, in spite of the fact that he’s not a big power hitter.
“I’ve been in that spot most of my life,” Miller said. “I just like taking that spot. I might not always hit gap to gap, but I’m a good line-drive, hard-hit ball, singles hitter. I love being able to do that.
“It’s really nice to do it in the cleanup spot.”
LoConte, who bats third, is confident if he can get on, Miller will send him around the bases.
“When he comes up, I always know it’s going to be in the grass,” LoConte said. “I just get on my horse ready to run because I know he’s going to catch a barrel.”
Miller played football his first two years at Andrew but gave it up as a junior.
“I really just wanted to focus on baseball,” he said. “I felt like I could come in and do something nice here with baseball.
“It’s always fun to come to a baseball field every single day. After school, you’ve got something to look forward to. Just come out here with your teammates and get after it.”
Monday’s game was tied 3-3 after one inning as Ugo struggled with his command early, walking Sandburg’s first three hitters of the game.
Ugo settled in from there and his teammates kept hitting.
“We were thinking about taking him out after the second,” DeHaan said of Ugo. “We had a tough decision to make, but he’s a senior, he’s been with us on varsity for four years, he’s been through it. Give him credit, he bounced back and kind of took over the game.
“We have tough kids on our team.”
As the singles hitter in the cleanup spot, Miller feels like he personifies what Andrew is all about.
“If you look at our roster, you might not be like, ‘Oh my God, they’ve got a bunch of all-stars,” Miller said. “But everybody plays for each other. We know what we want to do together. We just go get it.
“We might not have all the bombers, but we do what we need to do.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
