Mission Complete

Miller Cardinals make history as they secure the 2025 Baseball State Championship
The 2025 Miller Cardinals baseball team continued to make history the night of Tuesday, June 3, as they defeated the Eugene Eagles 7-1 in the Class 2 state championship game to secure their first baseball championship in program history.
Miller advanced to the championship following a narrow 3-1 victory over the No. 7 team in the state Chaffee, Monday afternoon ahead of Eugene taking down a dominant pitching staff from Tipton, 6-1, in the other semifinal
Miller won the coin toss for the championship game and earned home field advantage as Hayden Schnake took the mound for the Cardinals. Last time out he enjoyed one of his best performances of the season in the quarterfinals against Hartville, punching Miller’s ticket to the Final Four.
Schnake continued in the first inning sitting the Eagles hitters down in order to begin the game. The offense of Miller had been opportunistic throughout the postseason run and they looked to strike first. Senior Jarod Lung led off with a hit by pitch and moved to third with back to back wild pitches. After a pair of strikeouts, the uber-aggressive approach struck again as Lung took off from third on a 2-1 pitch from Chase Richards and successfully executed the rare steal of home for the 1-0 advantage.

Eugene struck back in the top of the second behind an error and a pair of misplays in the outfield led to a run. Schnake found himself in some trouble with the bases loaded but a strikeout limited the damage to just the one run. Miller looked to battle back in the bottom of the second.
Jase Wilkinson reached on a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a hit from senior Caden Calvin. After a wild pitch, senior Nate Hill put Miller back on top with a base hit up the middle. Miller was not done yet as the small ball barrage continued as sophomore Sam Ferguson laid down a safety squeeze that split the defenders and two runs scored pushing the Miller advantage to 4-1. Miller scraped across another run behind a Paul Nunez single and Miller took a 5-1 lead into the third.
The Eagles provided little resistance in the fourth with just a walk reaching base but stranded at first base. Miller continued to be the masters of manufacturing runs taking advantage of three walks and a pass ball to score another run in the fourth to take a 6-1 lead into the back half of the game.
Schnake remained poised beyond his sophomore status in the fifth inning and erased a one-out walk with a 6-3 double play on the instincts and arm of Jarod Lung. Miller continued their patience at the plate in the bottom of the fifth, drawing two one-out walks from Hendricks and Jase Wilkinson before Schnake gave himself a little assistance driving in another run with a single to left field that would knock Richards out of the game. Nate Hill struck out to end the inning but Miller led 7-1 going into the sixth inning.
After a 30 minute delay for lightning, Schnake took the mound in the sixth inning. The delay seemed to take him out of his groove momentarily as the first batter was hit by a pitch. He got help from his defense once again as the runner was doubled off after a line out to Lung. The next pitch was another ground ball to Lung to end the threat in the top of the sixth. Miller looked to add some insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth and a leadoff double from Lung put the Cardinals in prime position to do just that but he was stranded on third. Miller went to the seventh leading 7-1 with three outs remaining to claim their first baseball championship in program history.
Schnake came back out for the seventh inning searching for those final three outs. The first batter of the inning popped out with a big league fly ball to Lung. The second batter roped it to fellow sophomore Hayden Brown on a short hop for out number two. Schnake secured the Cardinals first state title with his sixth strikeout, 7-1.
The victory secured just the third state championship across all sports in school history, joining the 1994 football team and more recently the 2021 volleyball team. The 31-year gap between boys state championships was something that this year’s team was thinking about.
“This is something that we’ve dreamed about since we were five years old,” Miller senior Jarod Lung said of the victory. “I didn’t know it was actually possible but we did it now and to have our plaque up there with them means the world and feels like we left our legacy.”
Lung wasn’t the only one who felt that sentiment.
“It feels really good,” said senior Colton Brown. “Before practice even started, Coach Snider brought the seniors in and designed state championship rings and we all walked out of the office laughing and thought this guy is crazy.”
When he took the athletic director and assistant principal positions, continuing coaching baseball was not an anticipated responsibility for coach Snider but he was asked to fill a hole while they found someone else.
“I said I would coach for just a few years and part of the reason was I wanted to win my 300th game and that was it, but I am so proud,” Snider said. “I can finally breathe for the first time in months and there is just no better way to go out. The kids have put in so much time and effort. I told them when I got here three years ago that if they did what I asked of them, we would make it as far as they were willing to go and to go out on top means the world.”
Snider picked up his 300th win back in 2023 and has announced that he will be taking the elementary principal job in Billings, thus ending his time as a Miller Cardinal a state champion.
Schnake went a full seven innings allowing just two hits, striking out six batters, while allowing one unearned run.
Schnake also led the way collecting two hits in three at bats with an RBI. Junior Paul Nunez added a hit in four trips with an RBI, and this year’s Miller batting champion Nate Hill finished with an RBI double and a pair of runs scored.
Looking back, ahead
Miller finishes this season 25-5 but will have a new look come next season.
Miller will graduate seven seniors that improved by 19 wins from their freshmen year to their senior year. Brodie Rinker, Jack Shearer, Nate Hill, Colton Brown, Caden Calvin, Jarod Lung and Gavin Hendricks end their high school career 56-40 for their career with one district title and one state title.
While six of the seven seniors were starters, Miller will be in a position to go on another run next season as they will return the services of Sam Ferguson, Hayden Brown, Hayden Schnake, Paul Nunez, Eli Woods and possibly the Class 2 Player of the Year Jase Wilkinson, next season. All of whom contributed in a big way this season.