Hillcrest Academy shocks No. 1 Remsen St. Mary’s

CARROLL — The story of the summer of 2025 is not done for the Hillcrest Academy baseball team.

The Ravens, two games after shocking No. 2 Sigourney in the substate semifinals, and one game after a nail-biting substate finals against Pekin, did it again on Tuesday, upsetting the No. 1 team in Class 1A.

Hillcrest Academy used a barrage of base runners and an excellent start by senior pitcher Seth Ours to eliminate the top-seeded Remsen St. Mary’s Hawks 3-1, advancing the Ravens to the semifinals on Wednesday evening.

Hillcrest Academy pitching and defense was stellar all game, and the Raven offense threatened crooked numbers time and time and again, but had to settle for just three runs, despite collecting nine hits and loading the bases three times in the first three innings of the game.

The Ravens put up a huge threat early when the first three batters reached base. Rowan Miller led things off with a double. Ours got on first with a bloop single, and Mason Bender was hit by the pitch to put Hillcrest Academy in business early.

Remsen starter Collin Homan got out of the jam with a trifecta of strikeouts, but the Ravens did push one across on a wild pitch. With two strikes and two outs, a ball got to the backstop, allowing Miller to scamper home for the first run of the state tournament.

Ours cruised through the top of the first inning, keeping Remsen off the basepaths with three straight flyouts.

After a second-straight quick inning on the mound by Ours, the Ravens managed to once again put three runners on base. This time, Hillcrest juiced them with one out, and pushed two runs across the plate.

Ours gave up just one earned run on three hits, one walk and one hit batter over his six innings of work. He struck out three Remsen batters in the win.

Offensively, three Hillcrest batters finished with two hits. Lincoln Miller was 2-for-3. Rowan Miller went 2-for-4 with a double, and Ours was 2-for-4. Good had the only RBI of the game for the Ravens.

Hillcrest Academy (18-7) will now play on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., against either Martensdale-St. Mary’s or Lansing Kee.