One prosperous inning for Lisbon proved to be enough to hold off Hillcrest Academy on Saturday when the Lion baseball team ended the Raven season with a 4-2 win in a class 1A district final.

As heard on KCII, the home Lions had only one frame where more than four batters came to the plate and that was in the second. Four hits and a walk in that inning allowed all four of their runs to cross the plate to open an early 4-0 advantage. The Ravens had prime opportunities to put up crooked numbers in the third and fifth, but Lisbon pitcher Tyson Scott limited the damage to just one run in each inning. Seth Ours and Grant Bender started the third with singles and one run was driven in on a Noah Miller knock. A Luke Schrock bases loaded walk brought in the only other tally for the maroon and black in the fifth. After the tough second inning, Eli Ours only allowed one more hit the rest of the night and the senior finished his career tossing six innings giving up six hits and one walk to go along with the four runs. Hillcrest outhit their opponent 7-6 with Miller and Ours each going 2-for-4. Scott was the winning Lion pitcher throwing a complete game surrendering seven hits, two walks, and two runs. 

Hillcrest Head Coach Danny Hershberger reflected on the team’s successes throughout the summer. “It hurts right now to be done. It has been a lot of fun to work with these guys and we really felt we were playing our best at the end of the season. When we look back we can be proud of where we are at. We have been in a few of these district title games recently and we will continue to work to be on the other end in the future.”

Lisbon moves to 23-13 and they advance to tomorrow’s substate final against Maquoketa Valley. Hillcrest concludes the season 14-10 and say goodbye to four seniors in Eli Ours, London Schrock, Aidan Yoder, and John Hughes.