The Ravens battled back from an early four-run deficit on Thursday, but came up one run short of their first victory of the season — falling 11-10 to Lone Tree in nine innings.  

The two teams combined for 28 hits and 44 baserunners over nine innings. 

With the Ravens trailing by two in the seventh, Evelyn Gerber led off with a triple and scored on Esther Hughes’ single. Sarah Miller came through with a one-out single to center to tie the game at 6-6 and send it to extra innings. 

The Lady Lions (8-11) took a five-run lead in the ninth, but the Ravens did not hang their heads. 

Grace Miller’s RBI double was the first of four straight two-out hits for Hillcrest, which put the tying run in scoring position. 

Lone Tree pitcher Arlie Lorack ended the game with her sixth strikeout. 

Despite the loss, Hillcrest coach Kent Blossom was happy with his team’s effort. 

“You give up five in the top half, and most teams are just going to lay down, and be done with the game,” Blossom said. “But they clawed back and had the perseverance to try to win the game.

“Bringing the game-winning run to the plate, the game-tying run on base, that’s a situation we want, and we just didn’t come through. But overall, I was really pleased with our performance.” 

Lone Tree led 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth when Malia Yoder put the Ravens on the scoreboard with a two-out single to center field. Meredith Blossom cut the lead to two with an RBI single and Yani Gutierrez had a hit to load the bases. Norah Yoder reached base on an error to score two, but the go-ahead run was thrown out at home.”

Gutierrez was 3 for 5 at the plate while Hughes, Blossom, Gerber and Grace Miller each had two hits. Madeline Fox had a hit as well. 

Leah Bontrager allowed five earned runs on 12 hits and seven walks. She pitched all nine innings and struck out six. The Ravens allowed six batters to reach base on errors. 

For Lone Tree, Lorack allowed 15 hits, but did not walk a batter. Three reached on error. 

The two starting pitchers combined to throw 286 pitches and neither hit a batter. 

Louisa-Muscatine 13, Hillcrest 1

Louisa-Muscatine 13, Hillcrest 0

Hillcrest lost both games of a doubleheader at No. 3 Louisa-Muscatine on Monday, June 21.

Malia Yoder singled and scored on a Meredith Blossom sacrifice fly to cut the L-M lead to 2-1 in the second inning of game one, but that woould be the last run of the day for the Ravens, who dropped to 0-14. 

Evelyn Gerber had a hit in each game and finished 3 for 4 at the plate. 

Louisa - Muscatine senior and UNI softball commit Kylee Sanders had four hits and five RBIs. She leads the state with a batting average of .698. 

Danville 11, Hillcrest 3

Columbus 16, Hillcrest 1

Hillcrest lost both games at its home tournament on Saturday. The Ravens fell 16-1 to Columbus (9-11) in game one and 11-3 to Danville (5-10) in the third-place game. 

In the final game, Madeline Fox drove in two runs with a double to cut the lead to 4-2 in the third inning. Hillcrest could have potentially added more, but Yani Guitierrez made the first out of the inning trying to stretch a single into a double. Gutierrez singled in the top of the fifth and scored on Norah Yoder’s hit. 

Fox had two hits and drew a walk in the loss to Columbus. Meredith Blossom, Sarah Miller, and Yoder each had a hit as well. The Ravens trailed just 2-0 after four innings, but the Wildcats put up seven runs in the fifth and again in the sixth to pull away. 

Central Lee 8, Hillcrest 1

Hillcrest couldn’t keep up with visiting Central Lee (11-6) in an 8-1 loss on Friday. The Ravens fell behind 5-0 in the first, but got a run back with singles from Esther Hughes, Madeline Fox, and Malia Yoder in the first inning. 

Sarah Miller also drew a walk, and the Ravens had the bases loaded with no outs, but a line out, a pick off at first, and a strikeout kept Hillcrest from getting any closer. 

Evelyn Gerber and Delaney Shaw also had hits for the Ravens in the loss.