Pitching Has Been the Key For Hopewell Pony League Baseball

As the often-used phrase goes, ‘good pitching will beat good hitting on most nights’ and that’s certainly been the case with the 2024 Hopewell Pony League team.

The Vikings enter tonight’s matchup against the Beaver Falls Owls (5-3) with an overall record of 3-1-1. Through 5 games, the offense has been average but that’s certainly not the way to describe the pitching that Coach Jamie Yurcina has gotten to this point

For the large majority of the games, it’s been dominating and for large stretches unhittable.

The exciting part about this is that it’s not been one person that’s been the story, it’s been a complete team effort.

Hopewell has gone 3-0-1 and here’s what they’ve gotten from their pitchers.

Last game vs. Central Valley/McElhaney: 
-James Armstrong- 6.2 IP, 1 Hit, 0 ER, 1 Walk, 14 K’s
-Collin Davis- .1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 Walks, 0 K’s

vs. New Brighton (entered game with a 5-1 record):
-Armstrong- 5 IP, 2 H, 2 Runs, 1 Walk, 12 K’s

vs. South Side:
-Davis- 4 IP, 2 H, 2 Runs, 2 Walks, 6 K’s
-Ryan Gaguzis- 5 IP, 1 H, 0 Runs, 4 Walks, 4 K’s

vs. Riverside:
-Luke Vukovcan- 3 IP, 3 H, 0 Runs, 1 Walk, 3 K’s
-Jackson Yurcina- 2 IP, 2 H, 3 Runs, 1 Walk, 0 K’s

LAST 4 GAMES: 24 Innings, 11 H, 7 Runs, 10 Walks, 39 K’s

Tonight, this pitching will be tested as they take on a Beaver Falls team that has scored 60 runs in their 8 games. By comparison, Hopewell has scored 39 runs in their 5 games.

After tonight’s game at Beaver Falls, Hopewell has matchups on Thursday at Ellwood City and then three games next week (2 at Blackhawk and one against Central Valley).