When playoff time comes, you want to leave nothing to chance. The Hillcrest Academy baseball team found themselves in a tight first round game Saturday at Highland High School against Grand View Christian before they took control and put the game away with a huge sixth inning rally for an 11-2 victory. The Ravens got on the board first with single runs in the second and third innings with Luke Schrock and Josiah Beachy scoring to give Hillcrest the 2-0 advantage. Two more came across in the fourth when Schrock delivered a two RBI single that scored Mason Bender and Rowan Miller to make it 4-0. The Thunder made a game of it with a run each in the fifth and sixth to pull within 4-2 going to the home half. That’s when Hillcrest made their move. The Raven onslaught included 13 batters, five hits and seven runs to score the win. RBI in the inning went to Liam Schrock, Luke Schrock, Seth Ours, Mason Bender and Rowan Miller. After the game Ours and Luke Schrock talked about the rally, their night on the mound and their specific at-bats.
Ours said, “I knew they had some good hitters throughout their whole lineup so I had to mix-up my pitches, throw strikes and let my defense work. Watching everyone in that inning get on base and score runs was really fun. I wasn’t seeing the ball too well in my first at-bat. Later at-bats I really just tried to sit back and look for a good pitch to drive and I was able to do that in my last at-bat to drive in two.”
Schrock added, “I pitch better when I mix up my pitches, otherwise they crush my fastball. I just found the right place to hit the ball. It was on the ground past the infield with them playing in.”
Hillcrest finished with 10 hits as a team. Schrock and Ours each drove in three on a combined four hits with three runs scored. Those two also did the work on the mound with Ours working four and a third to pickup the win and Schrock an eight out save. With the win, Hillcrest is now 12-10 on the year and will play host school Highland in Tuesday’s district semifinals. You can hear that game live on FM 106.1 KCII tomorrow night, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 6:30.