Abbie Miller got to play in just six softball games during her freshman season at Southeastern Community College, and all were indoor on the FunCity Turf in Burlington. 

Before the Blackhawks could head south for a ten-game road trip to Florida, the season was canceled as the coronavirus spread. 

No more games were played, but it wasn’t a wasted year. Miller used it to get better. 

“She’s always been putting in extra time in terms of the game, and she always wants to make herself better,” Southeastern coach Melissa Flores said. 

“She’s a very good hitter, a very coachable player. And we’re glad that we have her on our team.”

That work is paying off as Miller, a 2019 graduate of Highland, has started the season 19-37 at the plate, leading the Blackhawks with a batting average of .514.

“This year, we were like, ‘hey, we need to get after it.’ This is our season, we can easily take this over,” Miller said.

She also has a team-high seven doubles and two home runs as Southeastern has won 11 of its first 15 games. 

“In the fall, we did a lot of scrimmaging, so we faced our pitchers, and then coach really emphasized our drills, when we do tee work,” Miller said about the team’s preparation. “And I think we have a lot of just naturally good hitters on the team.”

Miller was 9-21 with seven RBI in six games as a freshman. 

She drove in 148 runs over five seasons at Highland. She led the Huskies in RBI in each of her final three seasons, and had nearly 30 percent of the Huskies’ total runs driven in over that span. 

The Blackhawks have a four-game series with the Kirkwood Eagles (15-4) this week. Southeastern hosts a doubleheader in Burlington on Wednesday, March 24 and will make the trip to Cedar Rapids the following day to play two more.