Ravens Rally Past Warriorettes

Article Credit: Zach Ulin/KCII
The playoff opener for the Hillcrest Academy Raven softball team packed plenty of drama, as the Ravens advanced through HLV with a 7-6 win on the road. Hillcrest built a 3-0 lead with a pair of first inning runs and another in the third. The home team erased all of that and took a lead of their own with four in the third, and moved the advantage to 6-3 with a pair of runs in the fifth. Things stayed that way to the seventh. Down to their final three outs, the Ravens heated up putting four on the board to take the lead and the win. HLV won the hit column 8-6. Isabelle Vigneron and Emma Parizek each knocked in two, Vigneron had two hits including a homer in that final frame rally. Claire Miller and Ella Mize each had two hits. Mize drove in a run, as did Annika Schrock. Mize was the winner on the mound with two and two thirds innings and a strikeout. Raven head coach Kent Blossom joined the KCII PM Sports Page this week to talk about the rally and win. “Top half of the seventh, lead-off hitting Claire Miller reaches base for the third time on the night with a walk. Izzy Vigneron hits one out with a runner on second base to pull us within one run. Ella Mize followed that up with a double. Tying run is now on second base. Eden Nachtigall draws a walk. Two runners on, Emma Parizek up to bat and she did a job. She put the ball in play with two strikes on her and made the defense make a play. Fortunately for us they threw the ball away in right field, and that allowed both runners to score. We still had a job to do in the bottom half of the seventh inning. Ella Mize was in the circle and utilized her defense behind her and shut the door. For us to come back after having our heads down giving up the lead was exciting to see with a young team like that! Great experience for us!”

The Ravens advanced with a 9-17 record. HLV’s season draws to a close at 13-11.