Ravens Can’t Overcome Late Lions Rally
Two talented pitchers were inside the circle Tuesday night in the home opener for the Hillcrest Softball team against their cross-town rivals in Lone Tree. Ravens pitcher Malia Yoder and Lone Tree’s Abby Zaruba. Going into the bottom half of the 4th inning with no one crossing the plate yet, it was the Hillcrest offense that finally broke through when Malia Yoder singled to lead off the inning. She would later score on a sacrifice fly by Junior Lydia Beachy. Stavia Miller would then knock in the second run of the inning scoring Delaney Shaw who reached on a walk earlier. Lone Tree would answer in their top half of the 5th with a run scored. Then, Hillcrest would extend their lead knocking in 3 runs highlighted by a 2 run RBI singled by Malia Yoder to make the score 5-1. Lone Tree battled tough though and in their 7th inning, would come up with 5 runs themselves to take the lead 7-5. The Hillcrest bats couldn’t answer in the bottom half of the inning and that is how the game ended with Lone Tree on top, 7-5.
“We played really well against a upper tier team in our conference and we have to come away with our heads held high. Malia threw extremely well and our offense kept battling throughout finding ways to score runs and put us in a position to win. These experiences early on will help us to make adjustments over the course of the season and be able to finish games out” said Coach Kent Blossom.
Leading the way offensively for the Ravens were Malia Yoder with 3 hits and and 2 RBIs. Claire Withrow also added a hit and run scored. Malia Yoder tallied 9 strikeouts for the Ravens inside the circle. Next action for Hillcrest is on the road at Pekin this Thursday night. One varsity contest starting at 6:30pm. Next home game is Friday against Waco as this also just be one varsity contest starting at 7pm.
