Mike Vukovcan Hopewell Township- One day after taking on Riverside, the Hopewell Vikings HS baseball was in action again in another scrimmage against another top WPIAL program, Peters Township.
The purpose of scrimmages are to experiment with some things that you might want to implement during the regular season and to give certain players extended looks.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
Yesterday’s contest was one-sided as Peters Township came away with the lopsided victory.
Despite the loss, there were some highlights, which is always the case when you compete. Here were my top five positive takeaways for Hopewell from yesterday’s scrimmage.
Top Five Takeaways:
1) KROTEC ON THE MOUND– Junior Kingston Krotec will be an important player to any success Hopewell has this season. Krotec will be at the top of the Vikings starting rotation and yesterday, he looked like an ace. King, who was on a pitch count, went the first three innings, allowing just 1 hit, 1 run and striking out seven batters. After the second batter of the game, Krotec was nearly unhittable, especially with his off-speed stuff.
2) SMETANA’s RIFLE– If they don’t know by now, teams across the WPIAL will learn that trying to steal a base against Charlie Smetana, most times won’t be a good idea. For the second straight game, Smetana threw out a runner at second base. That very easily could’ve been three if not for a bang-bang call that went in favor of Peters Township.
3) McDONALD LONG BALL- Junior Ben McDonald will be hitting in the middle of Hopewell’s lineup which means he’ll be expected to produce runs. Yesterday, that happened as McDonald hit a long-opposite field home run to left field. With the short porch in right field, more home runs are likely in his future. McDonald also gunned down a runner at home from center field attempting to score on a fly ball.
4) YOUTH BEING SERVED- Head coach Morgan Singletary made the decision to carry two freshmen on the 2025 roster and to this point, the moment hasn’t appeared too big for them. Both Colin Davis and James Armstrong have accounted well for themselves this spring and that continued yesterday. Davis put the ball in play in both at-bats, including a fly out to left. A day prior, Davis contributed with an RBI single. Despite facing older competition, Davis has not been overmatched at the plate,
The same goes with Armstrong, who at two impressive, long at-bats. In his first plate appearance, Armstrong battled the pitcher, fouling off approximately 7-8 pitches before grounding out. In his second AB, Armstrong had another long at-bat before eventually drawing a walk.
If this keep this up, they’ll both find a role on this team despite being in 9th grade.
5) SEASON IS HERE- Scrimmages are over with and from here on out, the results count. Nothing has happened to this point to change the thought that the 2025 season will be a good one for Hopewell. Pitching and the top of the order will be the strength of this team and if a few players develop, Vikings Sports Now could be reporting on a lot of wins!
The 2025 season officially gets underway this Friday as the Vikings travel to Shenango.
