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Fortunately for Tim Pettorini, Mark Miller chose to transfer to The College of Wooster, despite being recruited by fellow W Association Hall of Famer, Matt Englander, who had just accepted the head coaching position at Case Western Reserve University after spending four seasons as the lead assistant at his alma mater.
"Matt saw me pitch in July after my freshman year in a Wooster Legion Tournament," recalled Miller. "He talked to my mom about playing for him, or at Wooster. I ended up enrolling at Wooster in August for classes."
When the season rolled around, expectations were extremely high – as is the norm for the tradition-rich program – and Miller was more than up to the task. He fit right in with his new teammates and emerged as Pettorini's go-to arm out of the bullpen. That season saw Wooster start the year 27-0 and hold the top spot in the Div. III poll for the entire regular season. Miller sported a miniscule 1.49 ERA in 42 1/3 innings, and held the opposition to a tidy .140 average.
Despite earning second-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors as a sophomore, Miller remained a relative unknown on the national scene, but those publications started to take note of the two-seam fastball wizard during his junior year. In 2008, Miller toed the rubber 26 times, saved a program-record 13 games, and logged a 1.97 ERA over 45 2/3 innings. Miller's stat line resulted in an elevation to the all-conference first-team and third-team All-America honors from the popular website D3baseball.com.
When his senior year rolled around, Pettorini was in need of veterans to anchor the front end of his rotation, and Miller answered the call, and so much more. The durable workhorse made 24 appearances with five saves. Among those outings were 10 starts, and Miller went the distance in four of them, with the headliner coming in the form of a no-hitter against Oberlin College.
After inconsistent postseasons in 2007 and 2008, Wooster clicked in all phases of the game at the right time for Miller's senior season. A NCAC championship was followed by a Mideast Regional title, and with it, the program's fifth berth in the Div. III Championships. There, Wooster outscored the opposition 36-9 over the first four games to clinch a spot in the championship round. After falling to eventual champion University of St. Thomas (Minn.), Pettorini turned to his three-year star to start on two-days' rest in the winner-take-all game. Despite coming out on the short end of a 3-2 heartbreaker, Miller turned in one of the gutsiest performances in program history. The right-hander went the distance – 11 1/3 innings – and an image of a stoic, dignified Miller walking off the mound after giving up the game-winning run captured by Wooster photographer Matt Dilyard, appeared as a double-page spread in Sports Illustrated's "Leading Off" and went on to be the lone college baseball photo in SI's expanded edition of The Baseball Book.
"The 2009 season was very special in more ways than just finishing as the national runner-up," shared Miller. "We came together as a family. Every class had a part in our success and we all respected one another."
Miller capped his career with first-team American Baseball Coaches Association All-American honors, and his 2.14 ERA over 184 2/3 career innings is the third-best all-time at Wooster. He still holds the program's saves record at 26, and his 73 appearances were the most in program history upon graduation.
Miller, who graduated with a history degree, is a sales representative at Sunbelt Rentals, and calls Decatur, Ind., home. There, he resides with his wife, Deidre. The Millers are the proud parents of five children: Kayden (the couple's 8-year-old baby angel), Tinley (7), Jase (6), Raegen (3), and Hattie (1).