Hopewell Junior High Baseball
Hopewell Junior High Beats Beaver, 5-2, for 1st Win of Season
Hopewell Twp- The Hopewell Junior High Baseball hadn’t played in a competitive game for 19 days, but it didn’t show today in their season opener against Beaver.
The combination of great pitching, solid defense and timely hitting allowed the Vikings to start the regular season with a 5-2 win at home against the Beaver Bobcats.
Starting pitcher Collin Davis was outstanding this afternoon as he pitched a masterful 6 innings, allowing only 4 hits, 1 ER and struck out 5 batters. The right-hander handled a good hitting Beaver team as he kept them guessing between his fastball and curveball the entire game.
Offensively, James Armstrong and Josh Gill both collected 2 hits, while Jackson Yurcina, Cam Hoth and Owen Ackerman each drew 2 walks. RBI’s today for the Vikings were collected by Jayvion Lindsey (1), Yurcina (2), Armstrong (1) and Davis (1).
Here are some of the in-game highlights from today:
**After allowing an unearned run in the 1st inning, Davis was dealing the rest of the game. In the 2nd, CD induced a groundball to Lindsey at SS, struck out a batter and then fielded a groundball back to the mound for a quick inning.
**Hopewell scored 3 runs in the 3rd and never trailed the rest of the game. Ackerman and Maddox Fattore both walked to start the inning. Gill then singled to right field to load the bases with 0 outs. Next up, Lindsey hit into a fielders choice to short, scoring Ackerman and the game was tied at 1. Next up, Yurcina did a nice job of hitting as he went the other way for a single to right scoring Fattore and Hopewell now led 2-1. The final run of the 3rd came home courtesy a deep double to left field by Armstrong, which scored Yurcina.
**Davis was able to go six innings because early on, he was able to have quick innings and kept his pitch count down. In the 3rd, after the leadoff man reached on a single, Davis got the next three hitters to fly out Armstrong in center, a pop up to shortstop and a strikeout swinging.
**In the Beaver 4th inning, the leadoff hitter led off with a single, but that threat ended quickly when the next hitter lined out to Armstrong in center field, who threw a frozen rope to first base, doubling off the runner who wandered too far away from the base.
**Hopewell extended their lead to 4-1 in the 6th inning. Yurcina led off with a walk and advanced to third base on a hard single to center by Armstrong. Then, Davis helped himself out with a deep fly ball to left field which easily scored Yurcina.
**Beaver had their best chance to get back into the game in the 6th inning as they scored on an RBI single to get with 2 runs and were threatening to get more. With runners at 1st and 3rd with 1 out, Davis ended his day impressively by striking out the next two batters. Hopewell led 4-2 heading to the last inning.
**Hopewell loaded the bases with 3 straight singles by Ackerman, Ryan Gaguzis and Gill. Then with 2 outs and the bases loaded, Yurcina drew a walk to score Ackerman and Hopewell led 5-2.
**Coach Nick Hoth then went to his bullpen to close the game and brought in 8th grader Maddox Fattore, who did a tremendous job getting the first batter to ground out to Davis at short. Fattore then struck out the next batter and ended the game getting a popup to Andrew Arzberger at first base.
Hopewell starts the season 1-0 with their next game on Friday at Ambridge.
After the game, Hopewell Sports Nation spoke with the Hopewell head coach Nick Hoth and starting pitcher Collin Davis.