​PEKIN — Earlier this month, the Pekin Panthers felt deja vu as they exited the dugout after a hard-fought battle with Hillcrest Academy. The one-two punch of the Southeast Iowa Superconference north division doubleheader mirrored past clashes: Pekin again needed a late-hit moment to beat the Ravens. In last July’s Class 1A substate final in Fairfield, Hillcrest scored the lone run in the opening inning to edge Pekin 1-0, despite solid pitching from Nolan Glick and Henry Adam. Two weeks ago, Hillcrest erased a near-run-rule deficit, scoring 15 runs in the final three innings to win 18-16 and split the doubleheader, thwarting Pekin’s bid for a flawless conference record. And as in Fairfield, Pekin had a late bases-loaded opportunity to tie or win, but Zandrik Allison lined out to right in the bottom of the seventh.
“Hillcrest always comes ready,” Pekin head coach Aaron Deutsch said. “Danny Hershberger runs a solid program, and he had his guys prepared. We just need to keep playing our game, keep pushing runs across, and not let up. The moment you let up, something bad tends to happen.” The message hit home again a week later when Mediapolis surged in the final inning: four walks, three hits, and a crucial Pekin fielding error opened the door for an seven-run seventh that handed Pekin an 11-10 loss and only its third defeat of the season.
“We played out of our minds, got ahead, then got complacent and threw it away,” Adam admitted. “Heading into this season, those Hillcrest games were the ones we wanted most—balancing the wins we had in the first game and fighting in the second. It’s tough when you think you’ve got a game locked up, and the opponent keeps chipping away.”
Now Pekin hopes these losses become lessons as it moves into Class 1A postseason play with the goal of reaching state for the second time in program history. Glick and Adam have formed a potent duo on the mound this season, entering the week with a combined 6-1 record in 10 starts and two saves for Glick, while Adam leads with a 0.24 ERA over 29.2 innings. If Pekin can carry that early-season momentum into the postseason, they’ll rely on that one-two pitching punch to fuel a deep run.