Patterson Mill softball pitcher Amanda Redmiles almost lost her arm. Now she gives the Huskies a ‘state championship-caliber defense.’

Amanda Redmiles’ arm was fastened to her body on by a finite strand of skin.

It was nearly two years ago when Redmiles found herself laying on a dirt path, terrified beside an overturned four-wheeler. A medical miracle and some occupational therapy wizardry later, she’s now a crucial puzzle piece in a Patterson Mill softball playoff run.

The freshman isn’t particularly verbose about her accident.

On July 1, 2022, Redmiles was staying at a friend’s house for a softball tournament. They were riding ATVs around the property when Redmiles took a wrong turn, skidded into a bump and flipped the vehicle over. She snapped both bones clean in half. She damaged arteries and severed tendons. Redmiles spent the next three weeks in the hospital, undergoing six corrective surgeries. There were two more procedures after she was discharged.

According to a Facebook post from pitching instructor Denny Tincher, Redmiles called her father, Pete, from the ambulance. “Her first words,” Tincher wrote, “were that she was sorry that she would be unable to play softball the next day.”

“All she wanted to do was come back and play,” Huskies coach Jeff Horton said.

Redmiles won’t shy from recounting the story, but it’s a trauma she won’t volunteer, either. “It’s scary just thinking about it,” she said. “But I try not to think about it.” Redmiles still keeps her arm covered with a black padded sleeve, even enduring a 90-degree practice before the playoffs.

Playing softball for Patterson Mill is a dream years in the making. Redmiles started hanging around the team as a quiet sixth grader, charged with keeping the scorebook and DJing each hitter’s walk-up song.

She was there for the Huskies’ 2021 state championship, then back with the group for their 2022 run to the final. Both those seasons ended with Gatorade Maryland Player of the Year honors for current Syracuse pitcher Madison Knight — a role model figure for Redmiles.

“I definitely look up to her a lot,” Redmiles said. “I loved watching her play in high school and now in college, too.”

But Redmiles is leaving her own mark in her first season.

She’s unusually poised for a ninth grader. Horton said if you were to solely focus on her, it would be hard to tell if she had just given up a three-run homer (which she hasn’t this season) or struck out the side (which she has — more than a few times). The only glimmer of emotion is a rare fist pump, which was Knight’s signature move.

Redmiles finished the regular season with eight wins and a lone loss to Rising Sun last month. She recorded three saves in as many chances. In 68 1/3 innings, the righty conceded only nine earned runs while striking out a whopping 86 batters. Her ERA is 0.92. In a May 3 shutout win over Harford Tech, Redmiles took a perfect game into the sixth inning.

“I knew that as a freshman she could really spin the ball through the zone,” said assistant coach Emily Luzetsky, a former college catcher who calls pitches for the Huskies. “I thought she had great control of her pitches. She could throw where she wanted, when she wanted. That was my first impression and she’s lived up to that.

“You can tell she was born to be a pitcher.”

Huskies junior ace Lily Baldwin isn’t a strikeout pitcher. She’s got great command and can keep hitters off-balance. Much of her work is painting the lower half of the strike zone. Redmiles is the perfect complement: a rise-ball pitcher with a nasty screwball that whirls up by a batter’s shoulders.

Because Redmiles’ injury was to her nonpitching arm, the road to recovery back on the mound was far less tedious. She needed just enough strength in her arm and hand to squeeze the glove and field a returned ball on defense.

Hitting has required more of a slow grind back. She was tentative with her arm at first. Swings looked skittish. Compensating for her weaker arm, the strikeouts piled up. In turn, she’d trot back to the mound almost sulking. Horton noticed the body language. He chose to let her focus on pitching and ease her way back to the plate.

Redmiles recorded her first hit of the season last week against Westminster, a single down the third base line. “I just think I’ve become more comfortable in the box,” she said.

Redmiles worked her way into a starting role when Horton and his staff realized the depth it gave both their rotation and their defense. When the freshman starts on the bump, Baldwin can strengthen the middle infield from second base. Cadence Pfistner then slides back to right field.

“To me,” Horton said, “that becomes a state championship-caliber defense.”