Hopewell 9-Year Olds Heading to Championship Game After 8-3 Win Over New Brighton

What a difference 24 hours makes!

On Saturday morning, New Brighton soundly defeated the Hopewell 9-year old All-Star team by the score of 14-4.

A day later, these two teams met again in bracket play and things changed in a big way.

Propelled by a 7-run first inning and outstanding pitching, Hopewell rebounded and defeated New Brighton, 8-3. With the win, the Vikings advance to the championship game tonight to take on either Central Valley or Hampton.  The game is scheduled to start at approximately 5 PM.

A day after allowing New Brighton 11 hits, the trio of Bowen Smith, Lucas Strano and Declan Lavia held the Lions to just 5 hits and struck out 10.

In the Hopewell first, with 2 on, Lavia doubled in Smith to go up 1-0. Logan Giering recorded an infield single which scored Lavia. Hopewell led 2-0.

With the bases loaded, Eden Lingenfelter was hit by a pitch to bring in Waylon Phillips.  Later in the inning, Strano put the ball in play, which at this level is important and it worked out in a big way. New Brighton committed an error which brought in 3 runners and Hopewell led 7-0.

Smith was dealing today and got help from his fielders.  In the bottom of the 1st, Smith recorded a strike out and got two ground ball outs, including one to 1st baseman Giering.

Another 1-2-3 inning for Smith in the second as he struck out two batters and induced a ground ball to shortstop Breyson Hoth.

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In the 3rd, Smith got two more strikeouts and after New Brighton got two runners on base, he got out of trouble by getting a pop up to Hoth at short.

Hopewell increased the lead to 8-0 in the 4th inning courtesy of an RBI single by Strano.

Speaking of Strano, he came on to pitch the 4th inning and continued Hopewell’s dominance on the mound. Strano helped himself out by recording the first two outs on come-backers to the mound. The final out of the inning came on a nice catch in left by Lincoln Cumpston.

New Brighton got on the scoreboard with two runs in the 5th inning and were threatening for more. With a runner at second and no outs, Lavia was brought in to pitch and he slammed the door. Declan struck out the first two batters and after an infield single to make it 8-3, he ended the inning with another strikeout.

Hopewell went to the last inning needing 3 outs to advance to the championship game and they got it!

After walking the leadoff batter, Lavia got tough by striking out the next two batters and ending the game on a pop up to 3rd baseman Waylon Phillips.

Congrats Hopewell and good luck in the championship game!