Brooms for baseball and a tough loss for softball were the outcomes for the Hillcrest Academy Ravens Thursday night on their campus when they entertained the Pekin Panthers.
The Hillcrest baseball team were 5-4 winners, taking both contests from Pekin this year. The Panthers got on the board with a single run in the first. Hillcrest took the lead during a three run third with Seth Ours RBI single the big swing of the inning as Liam Schrock, Luke Schrock and Rowan Miller all scored in the frame. The Panthers would get one in the fourth to climb within 3-2, Hillcrest answered in the fourth when Grant Bender scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-2, only to see Pekin post two in the fifth to tie the game at four. The winning tally came for the Ravens in the sixth. Liam Schrock walked with two outs and came home for the winning run with a Panther fielding error on a hard hit ball by Raven Jace Rempel. With the slim lead late, Josiah Beachy closed out his first pitching win of the year for Hillcrest, tossing the complete game. Beachy and Liam Schrock joined the KCII postgame show to talk about the night. Beachy said, “I was able to get into a good groove mechanically from the start and locate a lot of my pitches. It was just a relief you know. I’d like to shout out my teammate Luke Schrock for making some sweet plays at short.”
Liam Schrock said, “Two outs. I was up, and I walked, and I just don’t go after pitches I don’t like. then Jace (Rempel) put one to the left side and I scored on that.”
The Ravens finished with four hits. Beachy went all seven, giving up eight hits, four runs and striking out five. Hillcrest is now 8-10 overall, 7-5 in conference with the win.
On the softball diamond, Pekin did their work early, and the Hillcrest comeback fell short late in a 4-1 decision. Pekin scored two in the first and one each in the second and third frames to build a 4-0 lead. The Ravens broke through with one in the seventh but could get no closer. Hillcrest is now 4-13 on the year. The Raven girls travel to Holy Trinity Catholic Friday.