The Hillcrest Academy Raven baseball and softball teams traveled south for a matinee at West Burlington Wednesday. The Raven baseball team was beaten 9-6. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, Hillcrest built an early 3-0 lead with a pair of runs in the first and a single tally in the second thanks to an RBI single from London Schrock that scored Noah Miller. In the second, Miller scored again, this time on a wild pitch. The Falcons got back in it in their second inning, batting all the way through the order and scoring five times on two hits and a Hillcrest error to go up 5-3. The back and forth continued in the third with John Hughes and Liam Schrock scoring for the Ravens to tie the game at five. West Burlington counter punched again in the fourth with three runs and added another in the sixth to go up 9-5. The Ravens got a solo homer from Luke Schrock in the seventh but in the end it wasn’t enough. After the game, Raven head coach Danny Hershberger talked about the success early in the game and what he saw as the difference down the stretch. “Early we got guys on base and timely hits to bring them in. Lately we have been hitting the ball hard and we continued to do that today. I thought the difference was that they had hits and found gaps. We had a lot of loud outs on balls that we hit right at them. Credit them for the win.”

Luke Schrock was three for four with an RBI and a run scored. He also threw three innings in relief. London Schrock added two hits, an RBI and a run scored. Aidan Krabill took the loss on the hill for Hillcrest, throwing three and a third innings, giving up seven runs on three hits, walking four and striking out four. The loss ends the Ravens three game winning streak as they fall to 3-4. West Burlington improves to 6-3.

On the softball diamond the No. 4 in class 3A Falcons got the 10-0 win in five innings over the Ravens. West Burlington asserted control early, scoring nine times in the first inning. They would end it with a single tally in the fifth. Lauren Summers was terrific in the circle for West Burlington, allowing just two base runners on the day with Sarah Miller posting the only Raven hit and Esther Hughes drawing a walk. Abby Bence, Lauren Krieger and Summer all had two RBI. Leah Bontrager took the loss for Hillcrest going five innings, allowing eight hits, 10 runs, walking one and striking out one. The Ravens are now 0-7 on the year, West Burlington improves to 15-1. Hillcrest will be back in action today for baseball and softball at Columbus.