Lou Gehrig did something in Major League Baseball that now Andrea Miller of Gayville-Volin has done for high school softball in South Dakota.
Miller put together one of the best batting performances of the season on Monday where she hit four home runs, yes, four, to help lift the Raiders to a 26-15 win over Viborg-Hurley. She went 4-5 in the game in six plate appearances. All four of her hits went over the fence.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. I just went up every bat and took it one pitch at a time. It just seemed to keep working,” exclaimed Miller. “It was exciting, it was surreal. My coach came up to me afterwards and said “I can’t afford giving you any more home run balls,” so that was funny.”
Coming into Monday’s game, Gayville-Volin had played ten games on the season. In those ten games, Miller had three home runs. She more than doubled her season home run total in just one contest.
Andrea Miller of Gayville-Volin had FOUR home runs in Monday's game against Viborg-Hurley - one being a GRAND SLAM!
— SDPB Sports (@SDPBSports) May 2, 2023
For Miller, her season total now sits at seven HR's, and the Raiders have a 9-2 record in 'B' softball.#SDPreps pic.twitter.com/qBvcKxo2DD
“After my first one, I went back up to bat, and they hit me with a pitch. My next at bat, I went up there and I was like “I cannot whiff on this ball. I cannot kill it.” I had fouled one ball off, and then the next pitch I had launched it again, Miller explained. “I was like “oh my gosh, I just hit another home run.” That was my first ever two-home run game, I had never done that before.”
Along with having a ‘video game numbers’ performance in general, her fourth plate appearance in the game was another personal first, and one for the school as well.
“My next at bat is when I hit my first ever Grand Slam, which was really exciting. My last at bat I had gone up there after hitting already, pretty happy with that, we were starting to pull away a little more, and I was little more comfortable about where we were in the game,” she stated. “They ended up switching pitchers and I just waited for my pitch.”
Her final home run was a three-run blast, which gave her eleven RBI’s for the game on top of the incredible power performance. Afterwards, it was celebration time.
“I had texts and Facebook comments, and it’s just so surreal. I have amazing teammates and coaches that I can give all my thanks to. I couldn’t have done it without them,” an emotional Miller exclaimed.
The 2023 season is the first year of sanctioned high school softball in South Dakota. For Miller, she grew up Gayville, but since playing U12 ball, she’s been spending her summers playing club ball in Yankton.
“I want to thank my parents (Jason and Sarah) for everything they’ve done for my softball career,” Miller said. “It’s been really nice coming back and playing with these Gayville girls and they have been so welcoming bringing me back. I haven’t played with most of these girls since 12U, so it’s been really nice to come back and have a successful season together.”
Gayville-Volin sits at 9-2 on the season, and with the state tournament a month away, they’re sitting at 4th in class B for seed points.
“It’s special being that it’s the first year,” explained Miller. “We kind of knew going into it that we could be good, we have a high chance of going to state, but we need to take it one game at a time, one inning at a time.”
