Baseball Recap

Photo Credit: Cori Jobman/The News
Article Credit: Brendan Schnoebelen/KCII

Huskies and Ravens Meet in Key Conference Clash on KCII
June 2, 2026
The Highland Huskies baseball team looks to keep up a strong early season start when they welcome the Hillcrest Academy Ravens to Riverside for a key conference clash in a game you can hear on KCII.

Highland opens the week at 3-1 overall tied atop the Superconference North at 1-0. Their last action came in a home loss Saturday to Davenport Central 10-7. Garrett Beeson singled twice and brought in three runs. Noah Hartzler took the loss, tossing six-and-a-third innings and allowing nine runs on seven hits, four earned, with one walk to five strikeouts. This season Highland has scored 41 runs on 38 hits, with 24 batted in on a .304 team average, .431 OBP and a .360 slug. The Highland staff has put in 28 full frames of work, and have allowed 32 runs on 23 hits, 15 earned, and 20 walks to 35 punchouts on a .204 opponent average, 3.75 ERA and 1.54 WHIP. Individually, Bryce Hazelett leads with the bat with 12 hits on 18 at-bats and five RBI on an average of .667, OBP of .684 and slug of .833. He’s also worked nine innings on the bump, and has allowed five runs on eight hits, all earned, with five walks to 14 Ks on an ERA of 3.89 and WHIP of 1.44.

Hillcrest began their week last night against Danville. The Ravens took their season-opener 2-0 over Wapello last week. Calvin Meller led with a pair of singles, while Rowan and Beckett Miller brought in runs. In their lone game, Hillcrest scored their two runs on seven hits on a team average of .241, OBP of .290 and slug of .241. Lincoln Miller went the distance on the hill, allowing just one hit and five walks with 14 strikeouts on his way to picking up the win. The Ravens lead the all-time series with the Huskies 18-15 dating back to 2009 in the Varsity Bound era, having taken six straight.

You can hear all of the action live tonight on FM 106.1, AM 1380, FM 102.5, the KCII apps and online at KCIIRadio.com, beginning with the Area Game of the Week baseball pregame show at 6:30 p.m. with first pitch between the Huskies and Ravens to follow from Highland High School.

Ravens Win Seventh In a Row Over Huskies in Area Game of the Week on KCII
June 3, 2026
The Hillcrest Academy Raven baseball team used eight hits and three multi-run innings to blow by conference foe Highland 10-1 in the Area Game of the Week heard live on KCII.

The Ravens would score the game’s first four runs in the top of the first off of three RBI hits from Lincoln Miller, Beckett Miller and Calvin Meller to take the early command. Highland would answer in the bottom half with one of their own when Brock Nebergall came across on a wild pitch to make it 4-1 headed to the second. From there on, it was all Hillcrest all night, as they scored nine unanswered to race away for the key conference win.

Unofficially, Hillcrest won the contest with 10 runs on eight hits and two errors. Highland had one run on three hits and five errors. Beckett and Lincoln Miller led the way offensively for the Ravens with a combined four hits, three singles, a double belonging to Lincoln, three RBI, and four runs scored. Defensively, Rowan Miller took the win, going the distance and allowing one unearned run, five walks and six Ks. Miller spoke with KCII Sports postgame to talk about his first mound appearance of the season, “Curveball was more just a vertical motion, so kind of starting out of the zone, bringing it in, and then slider was, they’re kind of in the box tight. It would start at them and move in there. Then changeup was also working good most of the time, and was able to just get the batters ahead of the ball, and if they put it in play, then it was often off the end of the bat. Was able to pitch to weak contact, which helped keep the pitch count down. Had a couple walks. Just hit in a couple rhythms where I just wasn’t able to control it, but didn’t end up hurting me, so shout out to my defense for making the plays.”

Highland was led by a hit each from Garrett Beeson, Bryce Hazelett and Hunter Seeibel. The loss went to Hazelett, tossing the first four innings and allowing seven runs on six hits, none earned, with two walks and two punchouts. The win moves Hillcrest to 3-0, dropping the Huskies to 3-2.