Hillcrest senior Noah Miller was back in the batter’s box on Friday at Central Lee,  five months after a surgery to repair his torn ACL.

His return was cleared by his surgeon on Wednesday, but he was walked in both of his at bats at Lone Tree on Thursday. The first test for his ACL came on Friday when he drove the baseball past the infield for the first time in a year. The injury was not on his mind. 

“It just felt natural,” Miller said. “I’ve been hitting baseballs for as long as I can remember. So I just put the bat on the ball and ran to first, I guess.” 

Miller tore his ACL after coming down from a layup on a foot at Pekin on December 15. He had his surgery a month later, and then worked hard to give himself a chance to play in a Raven uniform one more time. 

“Lots of physical therapy with Chuck (Miller), kind of retraining the muscles how to work and operate,” he explained. “A lot of strength, lots of conditioning, and lots of movement.”

Miller can bat and play in the field, but he hasn’t been cleared to run the bases yet. Every time he reaches base, he’s lifted for a pinch runner. But after the second time, he cannot re-enter the game. 

On Saturday, the go-ahead run was 90 feet from home plate when Miller stepped into the box with two outs in the sixth inning. His first RBI of the season was a game-winner as the Ravens (6-7) reached the championship game of their home tournament with a 3-2 win over English Valleys. 

Miller reached base six times in seven appearances during his first three games. 

“It's a huge boost for us to be able to stick a bat like Noah’s in the lineup,” Hillcrest coach Danny Hershberger said. “He's worked incredibly hard to give himself a chance to play a little bit, and any limited role that he can do to help us is huge. 

"It's great to have someone that’s been around, that has that work ethic. He's been a leader off the field for us and now he gets a chance to be one on the field. So I'm just really happy for him that he's able to contribute in some way and it's been a huge benefit to our team so far.”

English Valleys put four runners on base all with two outs in the fifth inning to take a 2-0 lead, but Hillcrest responded in the bottom half. 

Grant Bender drew a walk and Mason Bender reached on an error to put the tying runs on base and Liam Schrock drove in a run as the Ravens tied it. 

Jace Rempel earned the win, allowing one earned run on four hits and two walks over seven innings.  

Hillcrest fell behind 8-0 to fourth-ranked Kee (25-2) in Saturday’s championship game, before scoring the next six runs in a 9-6 loss. 

Seth Ours hit home runs in back-to-back at bats and finished with four RBIs. Rempel doubled and had an RBI and freshman Rowan Miller had two hits.
Raven freshman Phoenix Anderson threw 5 and 1/3 innings in relief and allowed just one run on three hits and one walk. 

Hillcrest 10, Lone Tree 1

The Ravens led just 2-1 going into the sixth inning at Lone Tree before scoring eight runs against the Lion relievers over the final two innings. 

Rempel had a two-RBI single and Josiah Beachy had an RBI hit as Hillcrest opened up a 6-1 lead in the sixth. Liam Schrock singled in each of his final four at bats and scored twice. 

Cade Shield allowed two unearned runs on three hits and six walks over the first five innings for the Lions. But he had to leave after five innings with a pitch count of 115. 

“We did a good job of being patient,” Hershberger said. “They were throwing a lot of offspeed pitches and we did a good job of making sure that there were strikes and really did a nice job of hitting it hard.”

Ours had two hits and scored twice. Mason Bender had a hit and an RBI for the Ravens. 

Shield led off the first inning with a single for Lone Tree and scored on Matt Hemsted’s hit. Will Kleckner had the only other hit for the Lions. 

Luke Schrock threw just 91 pitches over seven innings. He gave up three hits and one walk and struck out nine. 

Central Lee 12, Hillcrest 10

Grant Bender doubled twice and drove in five runs, but the Ravens could not match the Hawks’ offensive output in a 12-10 loss. 

Central Lee led 7-1 after two innings, but the Ravens cut it to 9-7 with three runs in the fifth. Mason Bender had two hits and two RBIs. Luke Schrock hit a solo home run. Ours had a hit an scored three times. 

Burlington ND 6, Hillcrest 0

The Ravens had plenty of base runners, but could not score in a SEISC cross over loss to Notre Dame. The Ravens had seven hits, three walks and reached three times on errors. 

The Nikes scored four unearned runs on nine hits and five walks. 

Mason Bender was 2-for-2 and Luke Schrock was 2-for-4 in the loss. Beachy had a hit and a walk. Anderson allowed two earned runs on seven hits and three walks over five innings.