Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook

The Hillcrest Academy Raven Baseball team turned it on late Thursday for a Southeast Iowa Superconference win over the Pekin Panthers in Packwood 8-4 in nine innings. Each team tallied once in their first at bat, leaving the score at 1-1 until the fifth. There, the Ravens scored twice, and once more in the sixth to build a 4-1 advantage. Down to their final three outs, the Panthers rallied in the seventh to tie the game and force extras. Hillcrest broke through with four runs in the top of the ninth and was able to close the door in the bottom half.

The Ravens had six hits on the night, all singles, but feasted an 11 walks and two hit batters from Panther pitching, to go with four errors. Rowan Miller and Phoenix Anderson had multi-hit nights for Hillcrest. Mason Helmuth drove in two, Miller and Micah Gerber one each, with Seth Ours scoring twice. Ours was an iron man on the mound, working all nine frames with 101 pitches, giving up nine hits, four runs, two earned and striking out four in the win. The Ravens are 3-0 overall and in conference with a trip to L-M coming Tuesday.