Hopewell Loses to Beaver, 8-4, In Opening Game of Fall Pony League

Raccoon Township- After a couple months off, baseball has started back up as Hopewell opened their Fall Pony League season.

Fall baseball can be important as it gives kids their last chance of the year to receive in-game reps, along with giving younger players the opportunity to face a step up in competition.

This Hopewell Fall team has 14 players on it so the coaching staff will be shuffling a lot of players in and out of the lineup.

That process started tonight as the Vikings hosted Beaver at the Racoon Township Fields.

For an opening game, you’d expect the pitching to be ahead of the hitting and that’s what we saw tonight.

All in all, the Hopewell pitching was solid but a 4-run 3rd inning propelled Beaver to a 8-4 victory.

Left-handed Andrew Arzberger started for the Vikings and went 2 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 run, while striking out 4.

Anthony Ventresca recorded Hopewell’s first hit of the fall in the 3rd inning with a double to right-center but he was stranded.

Beaver jumped out to a 7-0 lead after 4 innings and the key was timely hitting. The first seven Beaver runs were scored with 2 outs.

Hopewell got on the board in the bottom of the 4th. Luke Vukovcan led off with a single, stole second, advanced to 3rd base on a passed ball and then scored on a RBI groundout by Aiden Ritchart.

In the bottom of the 5th inning, Nico Yannessa’s RBI single to right field made the score 7-2.

After Beaver added a run in the top of the 6th, Hopewell scored two of their own. Vukovcan walked to lead off the 6th inning. After stealing second, he scored on an RBI single by Ritchart.

Hopewell’s final run came home as Ritchart scored on a Beaver error.

Final Score: Beaver 8 Hopewell 4.

Next game: Hopewell at New Brighton, 6 PM.