Hopewell Reaches Semifinals with Exciting 7-5 Win Over No. 2 Blackhawk

DARLINGTON– In what was no doubt their most impressive win of the season, Hopewell showed a lot of guts and resiliency to pull out a 7-5 win against Blackhawk, which entered the Pony League Playoffs as the No. 2 seed.

With the win, Team Yurcina’s team moves onto the semifinals against Blackhawk/Haberman.

In order to have a chance to win a championship in any sport, it takes an entire team effort and that’s exactly what Hopewell got this evening.

Here’s the exciting game details of a tremendous Hopewell win.

Hopewell got on the scoreboard first in the top of the first inning. With 2 out and Collin Davis at second base, cleanup hitter James Armstrong hit a hard single to center field scoring Davis. Hopewell led 1-0. That was one of three hits on the evening for Armstrong.

Blackhawk came right back in the bottom of the 1st to tie the game as they took advantage of some sloppy Hopewell defense.

Right-hander Collin Davis got the start for Hopewell and was a bulldog out there battling for 6 strong innings.

In Blackhawk’s bottom of the second, Martella flew out to Lindsey in left field. Davis struck out the next batter and after the next batter walked, Davis got Moore to ground out to Andrew Arzberger at 1st base.

Some nice Hopewell defense ended a Blackhawk threat in the 3rd inning.

With a runner at 3rd with 1 out, Davis fielded a ground ball at the pitcher’s mound, threw to first for the second out. On the throw, the runner broke for the plate, but Arzberger gunned it to catcher Luke Vukovcan, who put down the tag and the runner was out. Game remained tied at 1.

Hopewell re-took the lead in the 4th inning as Davis led off with a single and would score on a sharp single to left field by Camden Hoth. Hopewell led 2-1.

Davis had a 1-2-3 bottom of the 4th inning as he struck out two batters and got Martella to ground out to Jackson Yurcina at second base.

Hopewell appeared to be in trouble as a combination of sloppy defense and some good Blackhawk hitting led to the Cougars scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 5th. The big blow was a 2-out, 3-run HR to left field by Angelo Ursida game to give Blackhawk a 5-2 lead.

The Vikings only had two more at-bats to try and tie the score and wasted no time by answering with 3 runs in the top of the 6th.

Armstrong led off with a deep double to center field. Next up, Hoth lined the first pitch to left field, which scored Armstrong. Blackhawk’s lead was reduced to 5-3. Then with 1 out, Jackson Yurcina came up with the hit of the game. On a 1-0 pitch, Yurcina lined a ball down the right field line which scored Hoth. Yurcina raced around second base and went for a triple. He was safe and the throw from Blackhawk went out of play, allowing Yurcina to take home. Hopewell quickly tied the game back up at 5-5.

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Because of a pitch limit, the 6th inning was going to be the last one for Davis and he went out in style as he struck out the side.

For the game, Davis went 6 innings, allowing 6 hits, 1 walk and struck out 9 batters.

The game went to the last inning all tied up at 5.

David Villanueva led off by getting hit by a pitch. Lindsey stepped into the box and hit a deep double to left field, Villanueva advanced to third.

Next up, Davis hit a shallow pop up to left field, which dropped, however the left fielder made a perfect throw to the plate to get Villanueva. David couldn’t break immediately for the plate because he couldn’t tell whether the left fielder was going to catch the ball and if he broke for the plate, he would’ve gotten doubled off at third.

Following that out, Lindsey advanced to third and Davis to second. Armstrong stepped to the plate and delivered with a line drive single to right field, which scored Lindsey and Davis.

Hopewell went to the 7th inning needing 3 outs to advance to the semifinals.

Coach Yurcina called upon left-hander Andrew Arzberger to try and get the final 3 outs. This was a gutsy move by Yurcina because Arzberger just returned to action following a broken thumb on his pitching hand.

Arzberger hadn’t pitched in a month, but you couldn’t tell as he mowed throw 3 Blackhawk hitters.

Arzberger struck out the first batter swinging. 2 out happened as Haney lined out to Armstrong in center field. Then the final out of the game came on the defensive play of the game as Lindsey made a sliding, acrobatic catch in left to rob Scott of a hit.

Final Score: Hopewell 7 Blackhawk 5.

No rest for Hopewell as the semifinal game is scheduled for tomorrow night against No. 3 seed Blackhawk/Haberman. First pitch from Darlington is scheduled for 6 PM.