Rylee Mills doing double duty for Effingham County High School softball team

SPRINGFIELD — Rylee Mills doesn’t want to be known as a PO — pitcher only.

It’s a joke she shares with Effingham County High School’s first-year softball coach Brad Thompson. Many of her highlights during the last three years came on the mound, but last season, Mills’ pitching and hitting led to the recognition of three different letters: MVP of the region.

“Pitching, hitting, they’re both really fun,” Mills said about her dual role with the Rebels. “I guess if you’re on (playing well) in one thing and not on in the other, then the first one is more fun. If you’re on in both, then you’re just having a good time the whole time.”

Armed with a fastball and curve which she moves up and down, inside and out, Mills dominated as a pitcher en route to first-team, all-region honors as a freshman and sophomore.

Last year, as a junior playing first base when she wasn’t on the mound, she added a .340 batting average to her 1.32 earned-run average.

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A year older, Mills, now a senior, brings leadership and camaraderie to a young team. She knows what it takes to win. ECHS is 64-21 with two region championships during her first three years. 

“Rylee has been a gem,” Thompson said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a player quite like her. She is exactly what you want as a new head coach coming in a new area. She’s been so supportive, so coachable. I tell the girls all the time, if you’re uncoachable, you’re unemployable. With Rylee, you tell her one time and that’s the way it’s going to be done.”

Mills, who played for Atlanta Premier in travel ball, made an impact early in her high school career. As a freshman, she earned a spot in the pitching rotation and throttled strong-hitting Apalachee during a 5-2 win in the second round of the GHSA state tournament, although ECHS lost the series two games to one.

“That game helped me as a pitcher,” Mills said. “I was able to trust myself more.”

In 2020, the Rebels placed second behind South Effingham in the region and won two rounds at state.

Last season, Mills, the team’s leadoff batter, directed an improbable turnaround. ECHS opened with four losses in five games, including a 9-1 mercy-rule setback to SEHS when Mills was forced to miss the game because of COVID protocols.

But in the next meeting with the Mustangs, Mills pitched a two-hitter and led the Rebels to a 2-1 win in eight innings — South’s only regular-season region loss.

Despite being a No. 3 seed, ECHS entered the region tournament on a roll. Although the Rebels had been no-hit through seven innings, Mills kept her team in the game against Glynn Academy in the semifinals before Jennie Edinger’s grand slam provided a wild 5-1 victory.

The next day, in the rain, Mills turned in an 11-strikeout, no-walk performance in a 2-0 win over Richmond Hill for the region title.

“It was a fun season because we were able to come back,” Mills said. “We had some girls out because of COVID, but we had others step up and we were able to make it work.”

Her senior season begins with a scrimmage Aug. 3 against Wayne County before opening play for real Aug. 6 in a tournament at Greenbrier High School against Greenbrier and Pace Academy.

Mills said after high school she’d like to attend the College of Coastal Georgia and take up childhood education.

But first, the reigning MVP (and not PO) would like to turn letters into numbers.

“One year (in 2020), we made it to the Elite Eight but they didn’t take eight teams (for the final double-elimination state tournament) to Columbus that year,” Mills said. “I’d really like to make it to Columbus.”