Hopewell Baseball
John Vescio Leads Hopewell to Exciting 8-7 Walk-Off Win over Ellwood City
The Hopewell High School Baseball team ended a 4-game losing streak with a dramatic 8-7 walk-off win over Ellwood City.
This was a game that went back and forth as each team scored runs in the first three innings.
After Ellwood City scored two runs in the first inning, Hopewell immediately responded which was important. Kingston Krotec led off the first inning with a single up the middle and then John Vescio, who was moved up to the No. 2 spot, cranked a 2-run HR to right-field to tie the game at 2. This was Vescio’s second straight game with a home run.
Ellwood City then scored 2 runs in the second inning but once again, Coach Singletary’s team had an answer as they put up 3 runs to take the lead.
With 1 on and 1 out, Zach Gigliotti drew a walk on a full count. Next up, Krotec recorded his second hit of the game to load the bases. After getting a big hit in the first inning, Vescio came through again with a bases loaded single to score Tyler Triscila. Next up, Ben McDonald grounded into a fielders choice, which scored both Gigliotti and Krotec. Hopewell now had the lead 5-4.
This is not a misprint, but Ellwood City would score 2 more runs in the 3rd inning to retake the lead 6-5 but for the third time, Hopewell would respond as they took advantage of two Ellwood City errors.
The game moved to the 4th inning with the score tied at 6.
For the first time today, we had a scoreless inning as both teams went 1-2-3 in the 4th inning.
After Hopewell scored a run in the bottom of the 5th to take the lead, Ellwood City tied the game back up as a runner scored on a wild pitch.
Vescio pitched a scoreless top of the 7th inning to give his team a chance to walk it off and they did just that.
With 1 out, Logan Triscila drew a walk and would come around to score an unearned run on an error by the Ellwood City right fielder following a Hopewell single.
Hopewell improves their overall record to 7-7. Congrats Vikings!
After the weekend off, Hopewell returns for three games next week. The week starts off with two games against Ambridge, followed by one on Wednesday at home against Quaker Valley.
