ESTELLINE — It’s been a long time since amateur baseball was in Estelline.

The Estelline Merchants have resurfaced as a Class B amateur baseball team as members of the Eastern Dakota League, and the first time the team was in action in over 25 years.

Brady Miller was one of the main drivers for the return of the Merchants, in part from his father and the stories he’d share during his stint with the team in the 80s and 90s.

“I’ve kind of tossed the idea around the last couple years,” said Miller. “My dad (Greg) told me a bunch of stories about back when he played and his grandma saved all of the newspaper clippings and I kind of looked at that. I’ve always enjoyed playing baseball and I hadn’t played for probably 10 years.”

Brady Miller (Left) and his father, Greg, after an Estelline Merchants game earlier this season. (Courtesy Photo)

That was until Miller was approached with a playing opportunity by Ramona Express manager and player Logan DeRungs last season. With his cleats back on the baseball diamond, Miller was eager to bring amateur baseball back to Estelline.

“We had quite a few guys that I had talked to over the last year about getting it going,” Miller said. “Then when it came down to it, we said ‘OK, we’re going to try to make this thing a reality,’ I just started reaching out to them guys and it probably took over the course of a couple weeks to contact them guys and feel like we’re going to make this thing a deal. Everybody said yep I’m in, and just kind of went from there.”

With the help of former Milbank Firechief player Anthony Johnson, amateur baseball had returned to Estelline, and there was no doubt what the team name would be.

“I kind of wanted to keep it original and keep the same name they had back in the day, the team my dad played for,” Miller said. “Just wanted to keep it the same and everybody kind of thought the same idea.”

The Merchants roster consists of 24 players, mostly in their 20s to early 30s, with a few players in their 40s as well. Miller hopes to continue growing the roster with a few more Estelline kids that will be coming through the legion program in a few years as well.

While it is a new team, there are a number of players with prior amateur baseball experience on the Merchants roster. Besides Miller and Johnson, Trey Schmidt and Skyler Solsaa played for the Castlewood Monarchs, Austin Suther had stints with the now-decomissioned teams in Britton and Langford, and Ben Bartling and Tyler Gasper each played for the Watertown amateur team as well.

A team photo of the Estelline Merchants from earlier this season. (Courtesy Photo / 605 Sports)

The four release players for the Merchants include Schmidt of Castlewood, Bartling and Landon Mack of Watertown, and Isaac Schulte of Brookings.

“We weren’t expecting a whole lot,” said Miller.  “A lot of these guys haven’t played for a long time so it’s kind of like a learning experience this year, just to get back into the groove of things.”

The Merchants are just 1-8 on the season but the one win came with an electric ending. Storming back from a 6-2 deficit to win on a walk-off, 9-8, against the Volga Cormorants back on June 1.

“To get that win, it got guys excited,” Miller said. “We were having fun regardless but just to get a win under our belt, that was pretty exciting.”

The Merchants have played all of its home games this season on Sundays due to the field in Estelline not having any lights. The city tore them down roughly 10 years ago due the lack of use, but Miller hopes to get new field lights in a few years with enough funding.

But as we approach the latter half of the amateur season, Miller says it’s been an awesome experience to have amateur baseball in Estelline once again.

“It’s been pretty special, the community has been really great about it,” said Miller. “Our home games, we’ve had really good crowds. I think the community is excited to have something to do again on Sundays. We’ve gotten a lot of sponsors from local businesses in the community. We’ve got a beautiful field and it hasn’t been used for many years so it’s great to see it getting used again and have a baseball team in town again.”

The Merchants are in action this Sunday against the Milbank Firechiefs at 4 p.m. in Estelline.