Ravens blow out English Valleys in district quarterfinal

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 7/14/21

Eli Ours, a Hillcrest Academy senior facing his last game as a Raven in any sport, had a mission Monday night: start and finish the game. And win.

Mission accomplished.

Ours struck out 11 and …

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Ravens blow out English Valleys in district quarterfinal

Posted

Eli Ours, a Hillcrest Academy senior facing his last game as a Raven in any sport, had a mission Monday night: start and finish the game. And win.

Mission accomplished.

Ours struck out 11 and gave up just three hits, helping to lead the Ravens to a five-inning 10-0 victory over English Valleys in the first round of the Class 1A District 6 baseball tournament game played Monday at Highland High School.

“We trusted Eli out there tonight to get the job done,” Hillcrest head coach Danny Hershberger said. “I told the guys, we don’t really have relief pitching tonight. We’re trusting our guy to go out and do his thing. That’s kind of what we’ve come to expect. He’s been throwing important games for us for quite a few years now, so I’m just proud of the way he stepped up and did his job tonight.”

The win was Ours’ fourth of the season, and came at a dramatic time.

Monday’s victory kept the season alive for the Ravens (13-9), advancing them to the District 6 semifinals against North Cedar. The district championship game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Lisbon City Park.

The victory was their third in a row, matching a season best.

“We’ve had ups and downs this year. You always want to be playing your best this time of year,” Hershberger said. “Our guys are stepping up. We’re starting to get everything together. We’ve had a lot of games where either we’ve hit well or we pitched well or we played defense well, but we struggled to put it all together. And the guys are starting to put it all together. The more times we can put everything all together, the better off we’re going to be.”

Ours had plenty of offense to back up his strong pitching performance, led by sophomore Jace Rempel, who hit a two-run home run and had two doubles. He scored three runs and drove in three runs.

“It feels great,” Rempel said. “I’m glad we were able to get the job done.”

Rempel joined Hillcrest’s .400 club with his 3-for-3 hitting performance. Three Ravens are hitting .400 or higher this season: London and Luke Schrock, and Rempel.

The 10-run blowout run came at a key time for the Ravens, considering they had just 24 hours to prepare for their next game. Hillcrest was originally scheduled to play English Valleys on Saturday, but rain pushed the game back two days.

“Anytime when you play back to back, it’s great to have a performance where your guy is pitching really well and doing a great job, not letting them score,” Hershberger said. “Our offense did a great job of being aggressive, hitting good pitches, being aggressive on the bases. We got some good timely hits tonight. I’m overall really proud of the guys.”

The Ravens struck quickly as five of their first six batters reached base, and four of them scored runs. After Noah Miller scored on an error, a one-out double by Rempel scored Ours. Luke Schrock scored on an error and Rempel scored on a ground-out.

The Ravens added another four runs in the third inning, highlighted by Rempel’s two-run homer. Josiah Beachy scored after walking, stealing a base and sprinting home on a sacrifice fly hit by Grant Bender.

Hillcrest set up a shortened five-inning game by scoring two more runs in the fourth.

In addition to Rempel, Luke Schrock also scored three times. Beachy drove in two runs.