Drew Miller and Colton Perez Share Transfer Portal Journeys Under the Same Roof

Drew Miller (left) and Colton Perez (right) fishing together on the McKenzie River with Over the River Guide Service

By Henry Light

Drew Miller and Colton Perez brought a buzz to the Drifters' locker room with their commitments less than a week apart in late July. Elsewhere in Springfield, they made the Miller home a ‘happy household,’ according to Perez, who spent the Summer with the Millers as his host family.

“Our kids have loved baseball since they were born, so, for me and my wife, having another baseball player in the house was just normal,” Drew’s father, Kirk, said. “Colton's a great kid, and he just fit in seamlessly.”

Miller and Perez spent their time away from the field at Lane County destinations like Blue Pool and Addi’s Diner while discussing their transfer portal experiences. The long wait ended with the right-handed reliever Miller committing to the University of the Pacific and the two-way player Perez committing to Morehead State.

“I feel like we share a lot of the same things as far as the process goes and just life in general, so seeing someone have some success like you and reach the same dreams that you're chasing is really rewarding,” Drew said.

Kirk hatched the idea of hosting a Drifters player at a Springfield Greeters networking event, where he talked to representatives from the organization. 

Drew signed with the Drifters soon after, coming off an excellent relief season at George Fox University where he posted a 2.40 ERA in 30 innings while leading the team with six saves in his second-to-last season of eligibility. Drew’s signing with the Drifters for the Summer offered him a chance to complete his transfer portal resume and made the Millers a natural fit to host one of his teammates.

“Seeing some success (in the Spring), I think, just comes from sticking with it and being around a support staff at George Fox who really care about me and want to see the best out of me,” Drew said.

Perez found similar success in his sophomore year at Vanguard, taking on a drastically increased role both at the plate and on the mound. In 131 at-bats, up from 57 in his freshman season, Perez hit .221 with six home runs. On the mound, he went from one inning pitched in his freshman season to nine, in which he put up a 3.00 ERA.

“Being a hitter definitely helps me as a pitcher, because I know what to do in different counts, and filling up the zone is more important than a lot of guys think,” Perez said.

The Southern California native, Perez, landed in a perfect living arrangement to explore the unfamiliar Springfield area.

“When we decided to host some players, we decided we weren't just going to host them; we were going to try and do things with them and show them around Lane County,” Kirk said.

While Perez explored his surroundings with his host parents, Drew spent much of his Summer interning for a law firm in Portland remotely in preparation for his post-grad plans to become a lawyer. Despite his busy schedule, Drew joined the excursions when he could, reconnecting with the area he called home before moving to Knappa for high school.

In the Drifters’ locker room, a community of local players bonded over Kirk’s longtime coaching career, which introduced them to Drew as teammates or opponents in various age groups.  

“It's really cool because he grew up playing against Nolan Miller and Blake Stavros, and in high school, when we were up in Knappa, we came down to play Marist, and we played against Cooper,” Kirk said. “That's one thing that we've talked a lot about in our house, how fun it is to play against guys that you've played against at one level or another, and it’s the same for Colton.”

Perez hit the ground running in June, posting a 2.08 ERA in 13 innings pitched while batting .320 with 11 RBI and two home runs. He clicked with the Drifters’ coaching staff on both sides and even took in some coaching from Kirk, who took in every Drifters home game in 2026.

“I've coached high school baseball for a long, long time, and I try not to say anything because they've got great coaches down in the dugout, but early on, Colton was really struggling,” Kirk said. “I just offered him a little bit of advice with hitting, just something I was seeing, and I'm not saying what I said made a difference, but all of a sudden he started hitting the ball, and it was super exciting.”

While Perez broke out early in the season, Miller’s best work came in July, when he allowed just three runs in 11.2 innings, while firing his fastball up to three miles per hour faster than he threw it in the Spring.

Despite adding Summer development to their respective resumes, Miller and Perez remained uncommitted into the second half of the Drifters’ season. Miller hoped to stay close to home while his first few offers came from the East Coast, and despite a willingness to travel far further from home than Springfield, Perez carefully mulled over several offers that came in around the same time.

Then, in the same week at the end of July, after discussing their shared journey at length, Miller and Perez found their homes.

“They reached out to me, and they had seen some video, and they like that I’m playing up here with the Drifters,” Perez said of Morehead State.

After debriefing Perez’s phone calls with his parents and future coaches throughout the Summer, the Millers were happy to celebrate his success.

Once the University of the Pacific emerged late in the process as an immediate frontrunner, Miller began reflecting on his journey at George Fox, which began as a late cut in his freshman season and ended as a graduate transfer moving to a Division I program.

“One of the things that I learned at George Fox was that respect is earned, not given, so coming in, I'm there to learn. I'm not taking anything for granted or acting like I know anything better than anyone else, and truthfully, a lot of those younger guys have a lot of things to teach me,” Miller said. 

With Miller off to law school in just over a year and Perez with one more year to spend in Kentucky or elsewhere, both can count on family, host or otherwise, any time they return to Lane County.