Delphi softball pitcher Lexi Miller pays tribute to father, notches 1,000th strikeout

LAFAYETTE — Delphi senior pitcher and reigning J&C Small Schools Player of the Year Lexi Miller set her motion as she had countless times before when practicing in Lafayette and Indianapolis.

Miller had a 1-2 count on Rossville freshman Caydence Robey as the home side was silent with anticipation on Wednesday night. A rise ball thrown tailing away had baited Robey, who swung above her shoulders for Miller's 1,000th career strikeout.

A nerved audience stood and clapped as Miller took her curtain call. Miller solidified herself further in Delphi history by becoming the first Oracles player to reach the 1,000-strikeout benchmark. She is already the program's career strikeouts leader.

"It was really great to see my team come up right after and it was great for them to have my back no matter what was going on," Miller said. "To be able to share this moment with them was really fantastic."

Over 10 years of springs and summers in Indiana have come and gone for Miller since discovering her love for softball.

She remembers becoming enamored with softball while watching her father Bryan play in a slow-pitch league.

Miller started pitching when she was 9 years old and took lessons with Audra May, the owner of Accelerated Fastpitch Academy in Lafayette. May taught Miller to bend the ball and use her fingers, wrist and forearm to generate the spin that's kept batters off balance.

Now Miller competes in national tournaments for Indy Bandits Elite and is signed to play at Frontier Community College in Fairfield, Illinois.

"When I practice, I practice 100% every single day," Miller said., "I throw 100% into every single game and I just want to excel in the end."

Sophomore catcher Airy Lattimore was on the receiving end for another one of Miller's historic moments. She caught Miller's perfect eight-inning game in the IHSAA Class 2A sectional semifinals against Seeger.

"I was very proud of (Miller) because she's been through ups and downs," Lattimore said. "She's been through a lot of battles that she's gotten through. To let her hit her goal that she's been looking forward to the last couple of months now really makes me happy as a catcher that's had her back the whole game."

Miller's tutelage has helped Lattimore blossom in her own right as one of the area's top defensive catchers.

"She's always helped me with batting and catching and everything," Lattimore said. "I just jumped into catching my freshman year and there was a connection where everything just clicked."

While Miller gleamed in her achievement, she quickly turned her focus toward the looming IHSAA playoffs. Miller finished with 12 strikeouts, but three errors doomed Delphi and it fell to Rossville 8-1 in the Heartland Conference Championship title game.

Miller's former club teammate Avery Layton threw a complete game for Rossville with 15 strikeouts and went 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs. Layton and Miller played on Tippy Explosion when they were 12 years old.

"This game gave us the kick in the butt to come out real hard and get back to the regional and get past the semi-state," Miller said. "(Rossville) is a real good semistate and hopefully they can make it to the state championship because they've been working really hard the last three years."

Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached atehanson@gannett.com, on Twitter at EthanAHansonand Instagram at ethan_a_hanson.