Hopewell Junior High Baseball
Hopewell Junior High Baseball Pulls Out Exciting 13-10 Win Over Freedom
The first game of the season for the Hopewell Junior High Baseball team sure didn’t lack for drama.
In their first scrimmage of the season at Freedom, Hopewell took a big lead, then fell behind, before pulling off some late dramatics.
Hopewell got on the board first in the 1st inning. Leadoff hitter Jayvion Lindsey led off the game with a single and eventually scored with 2 outs on a wild pitch.
RHP Collin Davis started the game for Hopewell and had a solid inning allowing 1 run, while ending the inning with a nasty curveball.
In the bottom of the second, Luke Vukovcan replaced Davis and was effective. The right-hander started out the inning with a strikeout. After walking the next batter, Vukovcan got the second out on a called strike three and closed the inning with a fly out to RF.
In the top of the 3rd, Hopewell plated eight runs to grab a 9-1 lead. Lindsey and Josh Gill led off the inning with walks, followed by a line drive double by James Armstrong, which scored Lindsey.
Then with the bases loaded and 0 outs, Vukovcan hit a hard ground ball to short, which he bobbled and Luke beat the throw to first, Armstrong scored on the play. Hopewell scored five more runs in the inning, two on hit batters, two on wild pitches and the fifth on a RBI infield single by Ryan Gaguzis.
Left-hander James Armstrong pitched a scoreless 3rd inning as he struck out the side. As the inning went on, Boo Boo’s velocity continued to increase.
Despite facing a big deficit, Freedom didn’t quit and scored eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 9.
Hopewell appeared to be in trouble as Freedom scored a run with 2 outs in the 5th inning to take their first lead of the game, 10-9.
The Vikings had one last inning to tie the game or take the lead and they did just that.
Down to their last out, Lindsey laced a ball up the third base line for an RBI double scoring Gunner Reese, who singled.
More clutch hitting as Reed Budavich stepped up and singled to right field, scoring Lindsey. That gave Hopewell the lead back at 11-10. After Armstrong and Davis walked, Vukovcan hit a deep double over the left fielder, which scored Budavich and Armstrong, to stretch the lead to 13-10.
Coach Hoth brought on lefty Andrew Arzberger to close the game and he did just that by inducing three ground balls.
The Junior High team will open up their regular season on Wednesday when they host South Side.