Bull City Ben
Durham native Ben Miller is having a blast playing for his hometown team
Jim Sumner, GoDuke The Magazine
You can’t go home again.
Thomas Wolfe made that aphorism famous. But Duke baseball star Ben Miller isn’t buying any of it.
“I think of it as checking a box I had left unchecked.”
Ben Miller is home. Again.
Some backstory.
Miller grew up in Durham. He started playing baseball when he was around four. He attended academically prestigious Jordan High School, where he played guard on the basketball court, quarterback on the football field and shortstop on the diamond, while exceling in the classroom.
He says he benefited from not limiting himself to one sport.
“I really just enjoyed being an athlete instead of just a baseball player,” Miller says. “I think I could have played college football, maybe at the Ivy League level. Baseball came a little bit earlier for me, so that’s just the direction I went. A lot of my best memories of playing sports are on the football field. I certainly don’t have any regrets. Every athlete I’ve talked to wants to play as many sports as they can for as long as they can. I don’t think I would be the baseball player I am if it hadn’t been for my football and basketball careers.”
Miller’s father George was a UNC graduate and Ben says he grew up a Tar Heel fan.
But he preferred to go to Duke for his athletic and academic career.
Duke did not return the love. Well, not enough for a scholarship offer.
“I started talking to Duke around my sophomore year,” Miller recalls. “I came to a ton of camps. They certainly had every opportunity to evaluate me. They made the right decision for that program at the time. There certainly was no animosity there. I had a great relationship with Coach Pollard.”
“We really liked Ben as a player when he was at Jordan,” Duke baseball coach Chris Pollard says. “He was a three-sport standout. He came to our camp for years. He could really hit. We knew that kid was going to be able to swing the bat. We just didn’t know if he would get caught up in a numbers game here and we didn’t know exactly how he would fit from a position standpoint.”
North Carolina and NC State also passed. Miller did get some interest from Davidson but decided to look out of state.
“I figured at that point I might as well just reach out to all the Ivy League schools and see what they had in the way of open spots. Penn offered me after my junior year, I went up there on a visit and absolutely loved it. I wouldn’t change anything about the path I’ve taken. I loved my time at Penn.”
Well, maybe not his freshman season. Covid canceled Penn’s 2020 season after only eight games. Miller played in only two games, getting one hit in five appearances.
But he kept working, kept getting better, kept finding ways to help his team win. Playing first base, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound righty was first-team All-Ivy in 2022, honorable mention the following season.
Penn won the 2023 Ivy League title and was sent to the Auburn regional. Penn stunned the home team in the opener of the double-elimination tournament 6-3 and edged Samford 5-4 in the winner’s bracket; Miller had two RBIs against Samford. But Penn lost the next two games to Southern Mississippi, which won the regional.
Miller had an extra year due to covid but couldn’t use it at Penn; Ivy League rules prohibit fifth years.
Duke and Miller weren’t going to have any missed connections this time.
“Once covid happened after my freshman year, I realized that grad transferring was going to be an opportunity for me later down the line and I knew that Duke was the place I would like to do that at,” Miller explains. “Once I entered the transfer portal in August of my senior year Coach Pollard reached out very early, the first day I entered the portal. It all happened very fast. There wasn’t much of a question on either end.”
Pollard has had tremendous success with Ivy League transfers at Duke and says he and his staff monitored the entire league for covid bonus years. Miller always was on their short list.
“Ben was a guy that we kept our eye on closely. I think I called him minutes after he entered the portal,” notes Pollard.
Miller says that he and Duke hitting coach Eric Tyler didn’t make any significant changes once he arrived on campus.
“We didn't really make any adjustments. We (the transfers) are here over the summer with the freshmen and it was very clear that he wasn't going to just apply the same coaching methods to the grad guys having four years of college baseball experience.
“So he really just trusts us to work through the process, as we know what works for us. He's just there for us. Really just fine-tuning some of the parts of my approach or my swing that I had trouble with in the past but a lot of it has just been sticking to what I know works for me.”
There was one change. Logan Bravo is another of those grad transfer guys, a former rival of Miller’s at Harvard. After experimenting all fall Duke made the decision to keep Bravo at first base and move Miller across the diamond to third. In fact Duke’s entire starting infield is comprised of transfers, with Zac Morris (VMI) at second base and Wallace Clark (Oklahoma) at shortstop.
Miller has the athleticism and arm strength to make the move work.
“I thought that I was gonna play first base, but I was splitting time between the two, 50-50 In the fall, just in our intrasquads. And then I guess, the coaches liked what they saw to give me a place for the actual game.”
Those long throws to first?
“Definitely, that's an added element. I mean, at first base all you really got to do is catch. You play (third) and then you're like, ‘Oh, wait, I got that guy all the way over there.’ That is definitely an added element to it.”
“It seemed to really click,” Pollard adds. “He’s played unbelievable over there.”
It didn’t take Miller long to make his presence felt. He went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in a 5-3 win over periennial national power Coastal Carolina in his third game at Duke. He had six hits in a three-game series (two Duke wins) against Akron. On March 5 he drove in seven runs to key Duke to a 28-2 mauling of Appalachian State. Four days later Miller went 4-for-5 as Duke toppled then nationally top-ranked Wake Forest 8-5. He had six hits in three games against NC State.
He also has a flair for the dramatic.
Against Miami, Miller’s single drove in the winning run with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Miller called that at-bat “a pretty awesome moment. I mean, we had runners in scoring position with no outs and then I already had water cups in my hands ready to go out until I have to actually go up and hit. You’re on deck before that moment thinking about whether or not you're going to pull it off. So I think it was a really special moment.”
An even bigger moment came in Blacksburg, Miller’s first game back after missing four games after being hit by a pitch. Duke trailed Virginia Tech 8-7 going into the top of the ninth. Miller sent the game into extra innings with a lead-off homer. Two innings later his RBI single put Duke up 9-8, which turned out to be the final score.
“He’s playing with a broken hand right now,” Pollard said after the Virginia Tech series. “What he’s doing right now is really gutting it out for us.”
Miller says he’ll worry about the pros down the road.
“I'm still deciding what I want to do with that. I mean, ever since I went to Penn and then covid happened, I've been wanting to play at Duke and this is really a dream come true for me. So I'm just trying to enjoy it while I'm here.”
He says he hopes to extend that dream deep into the postseason, with Omaha and the College World Series the goal that Duke has just missed several times in recent years.
“I think the ceiling is about as high as it goes. I hope to take the team to a place it hasn’t been in quite a while. (Coach Pollard) always talks about knocking that door down so I mean right now, your focus is just to put us in position to go for the regional and then try not to think too far ahead.”
Through April 21 Miller has seven games with three hits, three more with four hits. He’s batting .443, with 11 home runs and 39 runs batted in and has been named to numerous watch lists and mid-season All-America lists.
Pollard says Miller’s super power is “he’s really good at understanding how pitchers are trying to get him out. He’s able to climb in the pitcher’s head and think along with those guys. He just does a good job of hunting pitches. He goes up to the plate with a plan.
“He’s made hitting in the ACC look easy and it’s not. It’s incredibly difficult. This league has a reputation for chewing up hitters. It’s the best offensive season that I’ve ever seen.”
Pollard adds that Miller’s homecoming “is a really neat story. I’m so proud of him and his family. His mom and dad have been there and able to go along for the ride.”
Miller says “It's been really special being able to come back home and see old teachers and old coaches that had such a such an impact on me. They’re a really big reason why I'm here to be able to represent the Durham community that has meant so much to me, that I love. It has been really special and just a whirlwind and I'm just trying to enjoy it and share it with others.”
This story originally appeared in the 15.8 issue of GoDuke The Magazine – April 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.