KALONA

When Luke Schrock’s final pitch Monday night was popped into the air, Noah Miller of Hillcrest Academy raced in from center field as fast as he could.

Miller hugged Schrock and threw his arm around him.

The no-hitter was complete. But the celebration had just begun.

The Ravens’ night of history began with Miller’s dominant pitching performance in a 3-0 victory over
Southeast Iowa Super Conference rival Wapello. Miller struck out 10 in six innings. The Arrows went
down swinging at third strikes. They went down looking at third strikes.

“He did a fantastic job for us,” said Hillcrest head coach Danny Hershberger. “He was able to hit the
strike zone and really put pressure on them to hit the ball. He did a great job of using all parts of the
plate and got ahead (on ball-strike counts) a lot.”

But after six innings and 102 pitches, Miller was sent out to center field by Hershberger in the seventh
inning. Schrock, a sophomore who had already played a huge part in the game, was brought in to pitch.

“He (Miller) had a few pitches left, but we knew we were going to have to take him out,” Hershberger
said. “We wanted to start Luke with a fresh inning to get in his rhythm. Luke did a great job coming in
there and getting three outs for us.”

Schrock had already done his share in the sixth inning, chasing down a fly ball in center field and then
throwing out a tagging Wapello runner at third base. And in the fifth inning, Hillcrest shortstop Eli Ours,
who had pitched a no-hitter against Winfield-Mt. Union two years ago, saved Monday’s no-hitter when
he made a diving catch of a line drive.

“The defense behind me made a couple of spectacular plays that ultimately saved the no-hitter,” Miller
said.

It was a quick seventh inning to finish off this shared no-hitter.

“It was awesome,” Miller said. “I was kind of worried when I didn’t get to go back in, and he threw a ball on the first pitch. But after that, he found the (strike) zone and just pounded it, just like I was doing.”

Soon, it was celebration time.

“It doesn’t happen very often. The guys came together and made it happen tonight,” Hershberger said.
“Congratulations to them. It’s fun to be a part of something like that.”

The Ravens scored two runs in the opening inning to take charge. Ours scored on a triple by London
Schrock, Luke’s older brother. Hillcrest added another run in the fourth inning when Grant Bender
reached base on an error, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, went to third base on a wild pitch and
scored on a long fly to center field by Ours.

In the meantime, Miller plowed through the Wapello lineup, striking out six through three innings and
adding another four in his next three innings. His scary moment came in the fourth inning, when he
walked the first three Wapello batters to load the bases. Third baseman Jace Rempel caught a soft liner
for the first out, then Miller struck out the next two Arrows to end the inning.