Hopewell 12U All-Star Softball Team Wins the Southside Summer Softball Showdown!

The Hopewell 12U Softball All-Stars competed in the Southside Summer Softball Showdown this weekend and walked away as the tournament champions!!

Hopewell was the only non-travel (Rec) team in the 12U field, but they played great all-around softball throughout the weekend to secure the championship.

Hopewell started pool play on Saturday by defeating the Lady Warriors (Indiana Country) 11U team in walk-off fashion, 6-5. In their second pool play game, the Lady Vikings fell to a solid Golden Grizzlies (Chester, WV) team 10-1 to finish pool play 1-1.

Hopewell was tied with 2 other teams at 1-1 and due to tiebreakers, the Lady Vikings were seeded 4th. In their first bracket game on Sunday, Hopewell started the day off hot with a big win over Team Blackout (Latrobe), 11-1.

Next up in the semifinals was a rematch against the Golden Grizzlies, who were the No. 1 seed. Hopewell dominated the game from start to finish, using excellent pitching, great defense and timely hitting to cruise to an 11-1 victory and a spot in the Championship and another rematch against the Lady Warriors 11U.

The championship game proved to be a matchup of two excellent teams. The game was back and forth the entire way.

Hopewell jumped out to an early lead, but the Warriors fought back to take an 8-6 lead. Hopewell then responded with 5 runs in the 5th inning to go up 11-8. Hopewell could not capitalize with runners in scoring position in the top of the 6th to increase the lead, so the game went to the bottom of the 6th with Hopewell clinging to a 3-run lead. As they done all day, the Lady Warriors battled back to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

Using the International Tie-Breaker rules, Hopewell started with runners on 2nd and no outs in the top of the 7th. The Lady Vikings made a huge statement and scored maximum 5-run limit to take a commanding lead into the bottom of the 7th. This time, there was no comeback as pitcher Abby Babinsack and the defense shut the Lady Warriors down 1-2-3 to complete the championship win, 16-11.

Head coaches Erik DiCampli and Greg Babinsack led the Vikings team made up of girls from Hopewell’s two spring Rec teams. The girls meshed well as the weekend moved along. Hopewell got impressive pitching performances over the five games from Abby Babinsack and Alyssa Phillips. The pitchers were helped by some great defensive plays over the course of the weekend, including several double plays. The big story on Sunday was how the bats came alive scoring 38 runs.

The coaching staff felt all along that the team had a great chance to be successful being that they have great pitching and many strong bats in the lineup. The girls proved that to be correct as they battled travel teams, the heat, and three games on Sunday to bring another Championship back to Hopewell!!

HOPEWELL 12R ALL-STAR SOFTBALL TEAM MEMBERS

Abby Babinsack
Abby Kovell
Addy Gray
Alyssa Phillips
Ellie McCoy
Evie DiCampli
Gabbie Gray
Gianna Rossi
Harper Giardina
Izzy Mutkus
Kylie Smith
Sienna Zon