Avery Miller wanted to make sure that her outing went a little different than last time.

After the Glenbard North ace let up eight runs in her first game against St. Charles East on April 13, the Illinois-Springfield commit was pumped to get out on the mound to face them again. And she knew what to do to have success this time around.

“I’ve known a lot of them for a long time and knew they’re a good hitting team,” Miller said. “I just wanted to mix everything up, like my speeds, locations and spins.”

That approach ended up working in her favor, as the senior allowed just two runs, while the offense put up an early advantage to help the Panthers run away with a 7-2 victory over the Saints.

“She came out here and had command of all her pitches while hitting her spots,” Panthers coach Josh Sanew said. “She did a heck of a job with the changeup and keeping them off-balance. St. Charles East is a great team and for us to come out and play a complete game was huge, and it all started with Avery on the mound.”

Miller ended up going the distance in the game, allowing just six hits and two earned runs while striking out four to secure the win. And while every other player on the field wore an undershirt to combat the cool temperatures, the senior said she didn’t need it at all.

“I texted my dad to bring me one initially, but with the pitching and the adrenaline, it didn’t even bother me,” Miller said. “I was just constantly moving and I didn’t even think about it.”

The Panthers (11-5 overall, 5-3 DuKane) gave Miller an early advantage to work with three runs in the top of the first off an error and RBI singles by Maddy Woitas and Chelsea Michalowski. Aubry Miller added a sacrifice fly in the second to make it 4-0 through two innings.

“We’ve got enough offense to do stuff, but we needed to make sure we came out hitting the ball and scoring early,” Sanew said. “We’re not a very good team when it comes to playing behind, and we attacked the early and put the ball in play, and that’s the name of the game.”

Avery Miller helped herself in the fourth inning with a two-run single in the fourth inning, followed by another RBI single from Woitas, who finished with a game-high three hits, to give the Panthers the 7-0 advantage.

“This team just feeds off of each other and hitting is contagious,” Sanew said. “If you get a couple kids going and a couple breaks here and there, you just build off of it and it builds the confidence. We just played a complete game, and it was one of our best of the year.”

That advantage proved to be more than enough for Miller to work with. After letting up a single in the first inning, she went 19 consecutive at-bats without allowing another base hit.

“As soon as we got in front early, I knew they were going to have to chase a lot more than last time we faced them,” Avery Miller said. “My goal was just to get ahead and then just throw nothing that was good to hit.”

The Saints (17-5, 6-2) had the bats start to warm up in the final two innings, recording five of the team’s six hits in that span. They also had two runners on base at the end of an inning in four of the last five innings

“The colder weather kind of cooled our bats, but credit to their pitcher, she threw well those first six innings,” Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. “We put a few runners on, but we just didn’t do enough things right to win a ballgame against a good team.”

Lexi Majkszak and Kayla LaRose accounted for both runs in the game for the Saints with back-to-back RBI singles, both coming with two outs in the seventh inning.

“They got the early lead and it felt like they took the wind out of our sails for a bit,” Gutesha said. “But it was nice to see at the end Lexi having a competitive at-bat and Kayla adding another run. Yes we were down, but we were still fighting to the end.”