Ravens move on!

CARROLL — The story of the summer of 2025 is not done for the Hillcrest Academy baseball team.

The Ravens, two games after shocking No. 2 Sigourney in the Substate semifinals, and one game after a nail-biting Substate finals against Pekin, did it again on Tuesday, upsetting the No. 1 team in Class 1A.

Hillcrest Academy used a barrage of base runners and an excellent start by senior pitcher Seth Ours to eliminate the top-seeded Remsen St. Mary’s Hawks 3-1, advancing the Ravens to the semifinals on Wednesday evening.

Hillcrest Academy pitching and defense was stellar all game long, and the Raven offense threatened crooked numbers time and time and again, but had to settle for just three runs, despite collecting nine hits and loading the bases three times in the first three innings of the game.

The Ravens put up a huge threat early when the first three batters of the ballgame reached base. Rowan Miller led things off with a double. Seth Outs got on first with a bloop single, and Mason Bender was hit by the pitch to put Hillcrest Academy in business early.

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Remsen starter Collin Homan got out of the jam with a trifecta of strikeouts, but the Ravens did push one across on a wild pitch. With two strikes and two outs, a ball got to the backstop, allowing Miller to scamper home for the first run of the state tournament.

Ours cruised through the top of the first inning, keeping Remsen off the basepaths with three straight flyouts. After one inning , Hillcrest Academy held a 1-0 advantage.

Hillcrest Academy threatened again in the second, this time loading them up with one out. A ground ball by Ours turned into a quick double play for Remsen, and the Hawks were able to escape the jam.

After a second-straight quick inning on the mound by Ours, the Ravens managed to once again put three runners on base. This time, Hillcrest juiced them with one out, and pushed two runs across the plate.

The first run of the third scored when Liam Schrock came around to score on a throwing error, which was the result of a potential double play ball off the bat of Lawson Schrock getting thrown into right field. Two batters later, Rylan Good brought a run in on an RBI groundout.

For the most part, Seth Ours stayed out of trouble during his six-inning quality start. Ours did find himself in a tough situation in the bottom of the fourth, though, when Remsen had two runners in scoring position with one out.

With runners on second and third, a ball was laced out to shallow center field, but Bender came on strong and made a diving catch. One run tagged and scored on the play, but the Ravens would get the next out, and it was 3-1 Hillcrest Academy after four.

Hillcrest’s offense again put runners on in the fifth. An unlucky bounce and a fantastic throw by Remsen catcher Landon Waldschmitt cut out Lawson Schrock at third after a wild throw nearly put runners on the corners with one out. The Ravens then left another runner on in the sixth, stranding Miller on second.

But Ours, however, stayed strong. He sat the Hawks down one-two-three in the fifth, and wiggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the sixth, and Hillcrest still led 3-1.

The Ravens flirted with a couple of insurance runs in the top of the seventh, stranding both Lincoln Miller and Good in scoring position, but Remsen got out of the jam again, and had a shot in its final at-bat.

Phoenix Anderson came in to relieve Ours in the seventh inning. He gave up a one-out walk, forced a pop up and a groundout in the next two at-bats to close out the game.

Ours gave up just one earned run on three hits, one walk and one hit batter over his six innings of work. He struck out three Remsen batters in the win.

Offensively, three Hillcrest batters finished with two hits. Lincoln Miller was 2-for-3. Rowan Miller went 2-for-4 with a double, and Ours was 2-for-4. Good had the only RBI of the game for the Ravens.

Hillcrest Academy (18-7) will now play on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., as part of the Class 1A semifinals. The Ravens’ semifinal opponent will be either Martensdale-St. Mary’s or Kee. That game was not over as of presstime, but the final result will be in the online version of this story.