‘Awesome To Be On This Field’: Harwich Native Brady Miller Makes First Home Appearance For Mariners

HARWICH – Brady Miller has played on these fields before. For Nauset at home at Eldredge Park and away at Dennis-Yarmouth’s Red Wilson Field, or in Brewster, Chatham and Harwich for American Legion ball; Miller has been on these diamonds before.

His first time on the mound this summer at Whitehouse Field was always going to be a homecoming for Miller, a left-handed pitcher at Boston College and a Harwich native. But the hometown kid’s chance to suit up for his local Cape League team in the very place he grew up would have to wait.

Miller did get to pitch an inning on opening day June 13 for the Mariners, striking out the side at that, against the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox on the very field where, back in 2021 when Miller was a high school sophomore, Nauset finished a perfect regular season. But then, strep throat hit.

Sidelined by the illness, Miller was scratched from one home start, then another. He had to build back up. The day to finally make that start in his place of origin came three weeks later on July 5 against Chatham. Miller tossed two scoreless innings. The Mariners won 3-2, in walk-off fashion.

“It was awesome to be on this field,” Miller said. “I didn't really notice it until after I was done pitching. I was like, ‘That was pretty cool.’ It was great.”

All told, Miller struck out two on one hit. In attendance at Whitehouse Field were Miller’s parents, Bob and Lisanne (who both teach golf in Harwich), as well as his girlfriend, who actually sang the pre-game National Anthem. 

“It was cool to have them here, and I'm sure I knew some people in the stands just from being around here, and maybe I don't see them, but it was awesome,” Miller said.

A Cape Leaguer playing for the team of the town he grew up in is, no surprise, not a frequent phenomenon. Perhaps the most recent case prior to Miller was Cody Pasic, a Cotuit native who played for the Kettleers when they won a championship in 2019 (and who, growing up, was a bat boy for the team, according to league historian Mike Richard).

What’s more, Miller is the most localized case of Harwich’s consistent trend, under manager Steve Englert, of being the Cape club heavy on Massachusetts and New England kids. On the Mariners roster with Miller, for example, is Boston College teammate Colin Larson, who’s from Easthampton. Another Eagle — Julio Solier, who played at Springfield Central — was up too before he went off to Team USA collegiate training camp.

Larson had known Miller was from the Cape generally, and when they were informed by coaches they’d be going to Harwich, the 6-foot-5 southpaw mentioned he was from there.

“For him to be playing for his hometown team, that's about as cool as it gets,” Larson said.

The blasts from the past for Miller go beyond simply playing on baseball fields familiar from his younger years. His head coach from Nauset is, in fact, also in a Cape dugout this summer. Kevin Curtin, who spent the past four seasons with the Bourne Braves, joined Cotuit as their pitching coach for 2026. He had managed Nauset to consecutive Cape and Islands League titles in 2021 (Miller’s one year with the team) and 2022.

The Kettleers visited Harwich in mid-June. Curtin went looking right away for Miller, who he hadn’t seen since the final game of that 2021 season. Miller had transferred afterwards to Belmont Hill. At Nauset, he was a league all-star in both golf and baseball. 

That season under Curtin, the Warriors won 13 consecutive games — many of them at Eldredge Park, home of the Orleans Firebirds — before they fell in the Division 2 South quarterfinals. Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore, was their opening day starter.

“It was that clear, even during tryouts and early practice, that he was ready to help us, and he had a fantastic year,” Curtin said. “And when he transferred to Belmont Hill, I was all for it, as much as you'd like to keep him. I knew he was destined for bigger things.”

(Miller, by the way, had to choose baseball over golf — the profession of his parents — upon heading to Belmont Hill, where the two sports overlap in the spring, whereas for Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association schools, boys golf is played in the fall). 

The Mariners first visited Orleans on July 1 and make their way back July 15. Like the start this past weekend, that too will certainly serve as a return for Miller. It’s that baseball diamond, if anything, of all the Cape League sites, that has the memories, long ago from Miller’s point of view. He might even know more people in attendance there than at Whitehouse Field.

“That'll be a lot of fun,” Miller said. “I can't wait to be playing in a Cape League game there, because that's a cool environment.”

The plan in subsequent outings this summer is to extend Miller, now that he’s back on the mound for Harwich after the brief spell of strep. Englert told Miller as much after the game, that they’d stretch him out — that he’d pitched well.

It had taken a couple turns through the rotation to get Miller up in front of the hometown crowd, and he’d delivered with plenty of strikes, soft contact and a pair of clean innings. 

“He’ll be an impact guy for us for sure,” Englert said.