Strip Tags from Mini Loop

I have used a version of the mini-loop available on the docs that enables you to display posts from a particular category outside of the main content. The function I am using is:

<?php
global $post;
$myposts = get_posts('numberposts=3&category=4');
foreach($myposts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
<?php echo $post->post_excerpt ?><?php the_content(); ?><?php comments_popup_link() ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>

That is successful in outputting the excerpts from the 3 most recent posts in category 4, and also the comments link for the said posts. With the above, the excerpt is enclosed within p tags, and the comment link is just floating out there. I want the content and comment link to be enclosed within li tags.

I would like to strip the tags from both of those outputs. I suppose that applying strip_tags is what will do the trick, I just don’t know how to make it work.

Any help would be very much appreciated.