Miller Making Most of His Second Chance : Baseball: Harbor College left-hander survived an auto accident that nearly ended his pitching career.

As a pitcher, Dennis Miller knows the feeling of being behind in the count in a tight game.

But three years ago, the baseball career of the Harbor College ace left-hander faced the equivalent of a 3-0 count with the bases loaded and a slugger bearing down on him.

On a spring night in 1989, just before his junior season for Torrance High, Miller was riding in the cab of a friend’s pickup truck. There were four people in the cab and eight others in the bed of the truck.

The friend driving the truck “was screwing around,” recalls Miller, “and it got out of control.”

The truck flipped over and skidded to a halt. Miraculously, the eight people in the back of the truck wound up sliding down the street in the shell that had been attached to the truck bed.

The four people in the cab--in another virtual miracle--all crawled out and walked away from the wreck. Miller, surprised to be alive, looked around at his friends and felt overwhelmingly lucky.

And then he looked down at his left arm.

What was once his pride and joy, the throwing arm that had made him one of Torrance’s best young pitchers, was a bloody mess.

“I freaked out,” Miller said. “All I could say on the way to the hospital was, ‘Oh, God, I’m never going to pitch again.’ ”

At the hospital, the doctor told him that he had torn several tendons and, more importantly, his ulna nerve, which controlled feeling in the last two fingers of his hand. The doctor stopped short of telling Miller he would never pitch again, but he couldn’t guarantee that he would either.

Fast forward to the present, where Miller is putting together an extraordinary season for the Seahawks. The 6-foot-1 sophomore is 3-0 with a 1.30 earned-run average and has become the ace of Harbor’s all-lefty starting rotation.

Not bad for a guy who nearly lost his pitching arm three years ago.

“I feel lucky,” Miller said. “Sometimes lousy things happen to you. . . . But I’m very competitive. I’m almost too competitive, if there is such a thing. I discovered that pitching is all mental. It took me a while to realize that. I used to be a head case--always screaming at myself and my teammates.”

Miller came back and pitched his senior year--although not as well as he had hoped--and made Harbor’s team last year. But as late as the end of last season, Miller was still “just another guy out there,” said Harbor athletic director and former baseball coach, Jim O’Brien.

But after throwing only 10 innings in 1991, Miller played in Harbor’s summer and fall leagues and showed up for this season with new confidence.

“To be honest, we really didn’t expect him to doing this well at this point,” Harbor Coach Tony Bloomfield said. “But he put in a lot of time in the off-season. . . . He’s a shy kid, but when he gets out on the mound, he’s a fierce competitor.”

He’s also very resourceful. “For a guy who throws (only) in the low-80s,” said Bloomfield, some of his statistics are “remarkable.” Normally only power pitchers average more than a strikeout an inning, but Miller has 29 in 27 2/3 innings. His control is also remarkable: He has nearly six times as many strikeouts as walks. He always had good control of his three-pitch arsenal--fastball, curve, change-up--but this year he has had pin-point success.

“He’s a complete pitcher,” Bloomfield said. “The only thing he’s not is a power guy.”

So, what is the explanation of Miller’s strikeout success? O’Brien, Bloomfield and pitching coach Chip Cruise are quick to mention Miller’s “good command of his pitches,” “keeping hitters off balance” and “changing speeds well.”

Miller tends to agree: “Velocity . . . well, I wouldn’t say it’s overrated. But anyone can hit a fastball. If you can change speeds, hit spots and keep the hitter off-balance, you’re not going to get pounded.”

One word keeps popping up when Miller and his coaches discuss his improvement: maturity.

“That’s all it is,” Miller said. “It’s mostly maturity.”

Said Cruise: “A little older, a little wiser.”

Said Bloomfield: “He had to wait his turn, and now he’s making the best of it. He’s more confident now that he’s not in anyone’s shadow.”

Said O’Brien: “He’s somewhat of a late bloomer. But (Bloomfield) has really done a job of developing him and bringing him along.”

To play for Harbor, Miller had to contact Bloomfield--nobody came looking for him at Torrance. But now the situation is reversed and Miller is being recruited by four-year schools. Cal State Northridge and Texas Tech have been particularly fervent.

Through all the distractions, Miller has managed to keep his attention on baseball. Bloomfield is appreciative.

“Some of these kids get caught up in all that, all those four-year schools and scouts,” Bloomfield said. “It’s hard enough for these kids to concentrate without all these distractions. It’s nice to know that people are looking at you, but Dennis is staying focused.”

For his part, Miller has aspirations to play professional ball. He thinks that other pitchers may be more talented than he is, but perhaps Miller knows something they don’t.

A twisted, upside down pickup truck and a scary night in a hospital are always in the back of his mind. “It reminds me that baseball is not that important,” he said.