The playoff run continues tonight for the Hillcrest Academy Ravens when they travel to Lisbon to meet the Lions for the class 1A district six championship. Hillcrest comes into the night with an overall record of 14-9 after coming away with a 9-7 win over North Cedar in the district semifinals Tuesday night at Highland. The Ravens recorded a first round victory in five innings over English Valleys. Against North Cedar, Hillcrest built a 7-0 lead before the Knights responded to tie things and Jace Rempel delivered an RBI hit that would prove to be the game winner, he has driven in six in two games during the Ravens playoff run. On the year, Hillcrest is hitting .299 as a team with a staff ERA of 3.28. They are led by a trio batting over .400 on the year with Luke Schrock at .418, London Schrock .413 and Rempel .403. Luke Schrock has a team best 33 hits, London Schrock a team best 34 RBI. On the mound, Eli Ours is 3-3 with 39 innings of work and a 3.41 ERA. Noah Miller, Seth Ours, Liam Schrock and Josiah Beachy are all unbeaten on the hill this year.

Lisbon is 22-13 on the year, they were 13-4 champions of the Tri-Rivers East. They won their first two playoff games by a combined 23-1 score over Columbus and Lone Tree. In their recent 7-1 win over the Lions they finished with eight total hits including a 4/4 night from Tyler Scott. Luke Czarnecki drove in three. On the season, the Lions are hitting .296 as a team with a staff ERA of 3.42. Individually, Lisbon is led by sophomore London Stolte with a .379 average, 39 hits, 31 runs scored and 30 RBI. On the mound, Czarnecki is 6-1 with a 2.94ERA in 35 innings. Tyson Scott has a 7-3 record in 54 innings with a 2.71ERA and Hunter Clark a 5-1 record in 46 innings with a 1.20 ERA. This week, Hillcrest head coach Danny Hershberger talked about the keys to his team’s postseason success thus far. “The biggest key has been getting off to a good start offensively in the first two rounds. It’s always huge when you can score first and put pressure on the other team. Our defense needs to sharpen up and be a little more consistent than it was against North Cedar, but I have no doubt, we have a veteran group, that they will step up Saturday and make the plays that need to be made. We have gone this far in the playoffs four of the last five seasons. We are excited to be back. The guys weren’t happy about missing out on the chance to play for a district title last year. When they come to our program they expect to be playing in big games and playing for district titles. We feel like we are playing our best baseball of the season right now.”

These teams have met three times in the past, with Lisbon winning all three meetings, the most recent a 10-2 Lions win in the class 1A substate final in 2018. You can hear all of the action live tonight on FM 106.1 KCII and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 6:30 and the Premier Shed Shop and Champion Metal Supply first pitch at 7p.m. from Lisbon.