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Hopewell Baseball Standout Ben McDonald Commits to West Liberty

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

A third member of the Hopewell Vikings 2026 HS baseball team will be playing college baseball.

Hopewell senior outfielder and left-handed pitcher Ben McDonald has announced his commitment to play at West Liberty University in West Virginia.

Earlier this offseason, both catcher Charlie Smetana (USC Sumter) and shortstop Drew Donovan (Westminster) announced their college decision.

While at West Liberty University, McDonald will be performing the same role that he has here at Hopewell – playing the outfield and also being on the mound to pitch.

The big, 6’2”, 195-pound left-hander is able to get his fastball to the mid/upper 80’s, while also possessing a knee buckling curveball.

Since his days in Hopewell youth baseball, McDonald is an ABOVE AVERAGE defensive outfielder because of his speed and rifle for a arm.

At the plate, McDonald has tremendous power to right and center field along with the ability to generate extra base hits into the gap because of his power and speed.

This season with Hopewell, McDonald will be at the top of the pitching rotation and will likely be in a prominent spot in the batting order.

Vikings Sports Now was able to get Hopewell head coach Morgan Singletary’s thoughts on his standout senior.

”Ben is a big, strong kid,” said Singletary. “He has a lot of power at the plate and can get a lot behind his throws. He has come a long way on the mound and his stuff looks good going into this season.”

”At the plate, if he can put it all together and show the power and contact that we have seen at times over the summer and fall, then he can become a very dangerous hitter. Ben has all the metrics of a very good high school baseball player and a solid college player. I am excited to see how he brings it all together this season.”

Vikings Sports Now wants to congratulate McDonald and his family on this exciting news and wish him the best of luck this coming season.

 

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Former Hopewell Baseball Standout Joe Rock Placed on Tampa Bay’s 40-Man Roster

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 2 minutes read

Down in Florida and out in Arizona, major league baseball teams are starting spring training in preparation for the 2026 MLB season.

This morning in Bradenton, Florida, the Pittsburgh Pirates will conduct their first spring practice.

It’s officially baseball season which is always a good thing!

Vikings Sports Now wanted to keep you updated on a former Hopewell star athlete who’s attempting to make his first opening day roster.

Former Vikings star left-handed pitcher Joe Rock will be in camp with the Tampa Bay Rays and he received some good news as he’s been placed on the Rays 40-man roster.

The 40-man roster is a combination of players on the 26-man regular season roster, the 7, 10, and 15-day disabled lists. In order to be on a teams’ 26-man roster, you must first be on their 40-man roster.

In other words, anyone on 40-man roster is someone the organizations values and believes they have the chance to make the major league roster.

This is good news for Rock, who will work this spring to earn a role with Tampa Bay.

Last season was big for Rock (6’6″, 220-pounds) as he made his major league debut with Tampa on June 28th. In that game against Baltimore, the big left-hander came out of the bullpen and pitched 2 innings, allowed 2 hits and striking out 4 batters.

Rock would go on to have two other appearances, against the NY Yankees (3 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs and 5 strikeouts) and vs. the White Sox (2.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs and 2 strikeouts).

So, in his 3 major league appearances in 2025, Rock pitched 7.2 innings, 7 hits, 2.35 ERA, 2 walks and 11 strikeouts.

Courtesy- The Beaver County Times

After graduating from Hopewell in 2018, Rock attended Ohio University and went on to be drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 2nd round of the 2021 MLB Draft. While with Ohio U., Rock finished with a career record of 10-7 with a 3.47 ERA, striking out 158 batters and holding hitters to a batting average of .239.

Courtesy Major League Baseball

In March of 2024, Rock was traded by the Rockies to the Tampa and placed on the Rays 40-man roster.

At the start of the 2025 season, Rock was ranked as the No. 22 prospect in the Rays farm system.

While at Hopewell, Rock was an all-state performer and having his best season in 2017 by going 8-3 with a 1.30 ERA and striking out 108 batters.

Congratulations Joe on this tremendous accomplishment and best of luck with Tampa Bay!!

 

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Opportunity to Sign Up for Night at the Races and Support Hopewell HS Baseball

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 2 minutes read

Wanted to let you know about something early so you can mark it down and hopefully sign up for something that’s very important to one of the teams at Hopewell High School.

All high school teams look to find ways to bring in money in order to take care of the athletes and frankly, to fund their program.

The #1 fundraiser for the Hopewell HS Baseball program is their annual Night at the Races event so we want to make sure you know about it and you can hopefully attend.

Here are all the details that you need to know and a link in order to sign up.

Event Details

Hopewell Baseball’s Night @ The Races
📅 Saturday, February 7, 2025
📍 Saint Elijah Serbian Orthodox Church
2200 Irwin St, Aliquippa PA

This night is all about great food, spirited racing, raffles, and a fun atmosphere that brings our families, alumni, and supporters together while raising essential funds for our High School and Jr. High programs.

What’s New for 2026 — Your Feedback Made This Better

The program listened closely to the feedback from last year’s attendees and are committed to making this event even more enjoyable.

Here are a few upgrades you’ll notice:
• A new MC who will bring energy, personality, and a smoother flow to the entire night
• Catering from a local restaurant to elevate the dinner experience and ensure everyone enjoys the food
• Even more great raffle baskets, featuring a wide range of themes and high-value items

Ticket Options

• $45 General Admission
Includes dinner buffet, drinks, and entry into all Cash Bash drawings

• $25 Horse
Name your horse and cheer it on for bragging rights

• $100 Early Bird Bundle
Includes 2 General Admission tickets and 1 Horse
Available to the first 100 customers or through 12/31/2025
A $15 savings

🎟️ Purchase Tickets Here:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/night-the-races

Important Note at Checkout

They’re using Zeffy to eliminate processing fees, so the full value of your ticket goes directly to the program and to save you money! Zeffy includes an optional contribution to support their platform. To remove it, click the dropdown, select “Other”, and enter $0.

Why Your Support Matters

Night at the Races is the baseball programs largest fundraiser of the year. Proceeds help fund:
• Equipment upgrades
• Field and facility improvements
• Travel and training needs
• Enhancements that directly benefit our student-athletes

 

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Hopewell’s Charlie Smetana Commits to USC-Sumter

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

It’s exciting day for a local athlete and the Hopewell High School Baseball program.

Congratulations to Hopewell senior baseball player Charlie Smetana who this afternoon made a commitment to continue his baseball career at USC-Sumter.

USC-Sumter is a top developing JUCO baseball program in South Carolina, so this is a great opportunity for Smetana to continue to develop and possibly one day move up to D-1.

I’ve known Charlie since he was a young player in the Hopewell Youth Baseball and to see him get to this point is really cool.

Trust me, nothing was given to him. Charlie is a great example of working hard, work yearlong to achieve a lifelong dream.

Vikings Sports Now had the chance to talk to Smetana about this exciting decision and his bright future.

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Congratulations to Hopewell Senior Drew Donovan

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 2 minutes read

Hopewell senior shortstop Drew Donovan is the type of player that every coach desires to have on their team.

With Donovan, you’re getting a team-player, someone that’s hard working, has zero ego, causes zero problems, is all about winning and by the way, he has talent.

Trust me, it’s becoming harder and harder for high school coaches today to surround themselves and fill a roster with these type of players.

It comes as no surprise that with these characteristics, college baseball teams wanted Donovan to be a part of their program.

After doing the proper research and taking everything into consideration, Donovan has made the choice to continue playing college baseball at Westminster.


“It means everything to me.,” Donovan tells Viking Sports Now. “Knowing that this season isn’t my last season of playing baseball is a great feeling.”

Knowing this was the biggest decision of his young life to this point, Donovan didn’t rush things. After talking with his parents Shaun and Becky and making visits to various campuses, Drew was very comfortable selecting Westminster.


“Westminster is a great fit for me because it felt like home,” said Donovan. “Everybody there is really nice and personable, and I really like the atmosphere that it gives the students.  The coaching staff is great and the baseball program is what I was looking for. Westminster checked all the boxes for me.”

Baseball has been Donovan’s passion since he started playing at the Kane Road Complex within the Hopewell Youth Baseball organization. Aside from playing within the Hopewell system, Donovan has also played travel baseball with the Outlaws (2018-19), Beaver Valley Baseball (2019-23) and Creekside (2025).

“Playing baseball in college has been a goal of mine for as long as I can remember,” said Donovan. “I have been very determined to make this dream of playing college baseball, a reality.”


“Drew has put in a ton of work these past few years of high school,” said Hopewell Baseball Coach Morgan Singletary. “He has spent a lot of time in the weight room, in the cage, and on the field. I have noticed big improvements in his arm strength, receiving and pop at the plate.”

“Last season we saw a lot coming together for him which is always exciting but I know he is going to bring even more to the table this year. I’m always happy to see players get the opportunity to play at the next level. Drew has put in the work and has earned it for himself. I’m excited to see what he does for us this year and also that I’ll get to follow him as he continues his career.”

In terms of his future,  Donovan says that his focus this year will be on staying consistent with his hitting and trying to gain a few MPH on his fastball.”

While at Westminster, Donovan plans on majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Sports Administration.

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Big Day for Charlie Smetana in Quest to Fulfill Dream

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 2 minutes read

Charlie Smetana is obsessed with baseball and to have the opportunity to play it beyond high school.

As he enters his senior season, Smetana is still waiting for that first college scholarship offer. And while he might be waiting for that phone call or in-person offer, he’s not sitting around his house doing nothing.

Since the end of the Hopewell HS baseball season, Smetana has been playing off-season baseball with various teams, namely BV Baseball. He’s also attended and been invited to a number of prospect camps/showcase events. The purpose of that is to showcase his skills in front of college scouts and coaches that attend these events.

Six or seven years ago Smetana would likely have earned a scholarship by now but with the landscape of college athletics having been completely changed. Because of the transfer portal, less scholarships are available for players in sports such as basketball and baseball. Reason being is that instead of using scholarships on young high school athletes, college teams have opted to instead use them on players in the transfer portal that already have college experience.

This change in recruiting is no doubt unfortunate for high school athletes but it’s the way things are and they must now adapt and work harder.

That’s not an issue for Smetana, it’s actually a source of motivation.

Over the weekend, Smetana is in Maryland after receiving an invitation to attend the 21st annual Crab Claw Classic. This is a scouting combine for players in Pennsylvania, Maryland, DC, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio area. It allows these players to compete against others in the Mid-Atlantic Region in front of college coaches, scouts and pro scouts.

The way it works is, Saturday is a combine event, where all the players compete against each other and are test in events such as fastest runner, top arm, top fielder, top pitcher, top contact hitter, top power hitter, top prospect award. These players are basically competing in a professional baseball tryout format.

After the winners of these events are announced, the coaches, scouts and directors of the event pick two teams of players from the hundreds in attendance to play in two All-Star Games at Hartford Community College Stadium.

Congratulations to Smetana as he was selected as one of the players to stay around and play this afternoon. Considering the amount of players that worked out on Saturday, that’s an impressive accomplishment.

Not only did Smetana make this All-Star team, he also won two of the skill competitions.

Charlie won the best arm award with a pop time of 1.95. That was the first time he was under 2.0 in a showcase event. In case you’re not familiar with the term, pop time it takes a catcher to catch the ball, pop out of his catching stance and release the ball towards second base.

 

Smetana not only excelled defensively but impressed with his bat as well as he won the award for the best contact hitter. That’s a big one for him.

Keep working Chuck and good luck this afternoon. You’re time is coming soon.

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Former Hopewell Pitcher Joe Rock Strikes Out 4 in MLB Debut!

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

What a day for former Hopewell Vikings star pitcher Joe Rock.

This morning, Rock got the news that he was getting promoted from AAA Durham to the major leagues to join the Tampa Bay Rays as they took on the Baltimore Orioles.

After arriving in Baltimore to join his new teammates, a few hours later, Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash didn’t waste any time getting him into the game.

With Tampa ahead 11-1, Cash brought in Rock to pitch the 8th inning and the left-hander had a successful opening frame.

Rock stepped to the mound and faced Cedric Mullins in his MLB and got him to ground out to second base. Here was Rock’s first MLB out.

The rest of the 8th went well for Rock as after the next batter reached via error and after allowing his first MLB hit to former 1st round pick Jackson Holliday, Rock went on to struck out Ramon Urias and Gunnar Henderson swinging to end the frame.

Cash then decided to bring Rock out to close the game. Rock did allow a single and a home run but settled down to record a force out and struck out Mullins and Holliday to end the game.

So, in his MLB debut, Rock pitched 2 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 walks and struck out 4.

Congrats Joe on pitching in your first major league game!!

 

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Former Hopewell Star Pitcher Joe Rock Promoted to the Majors

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

A dream come true took place today for a former Hopewell Vikings athlete.

Former Hopewell standout pitcher Joe Rock was promoted this morning from AAA Durham to the Tampa Bay Rays roster. This will mark Rock’s first callup to a major league roster.

Courtesy- The Beaver County Times

The 24-year-old left-handed pitcher will be used out of Tampa Bay’s bullpen after being used as starter this season for Durham. In 15 games (14 starts) this season, Rock went 3-5 with a 1.49 WHIP and struck out 63 batters in 73 innings.

After graduating from Hopewell in 2018, Rock attended Ohio University and went on to be drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 2nd round of the 2021 MLB Draft. While with Ohio U., Rock finished with a career record of 10-7 with a 3.47 ERA, striking out 158 batters and holding hitters to a batting average of .239.

Courtesy Major League Baseball

In March of 2024, Rock was traded by the Rockies to the Tampa and placed on the Rays 40-man roster.

At the start of the 2025 season, Rock was ranked as the No. 22 prospect in the Rays farm system. Last season with AAA Durham, the 6’6″ Rock appeared in 27 games (23 starts) and posted a 7-8 record, pitching 139.2 innings, striking out 132 and finishing with a 4.58 ERA.

While at Hopewell, Rock was an all-state performer and having his best season in 2017 by going 8-3 with a 1.30 ERA and striking out 108 batters.

Congratulations Joe on this tremendous accomplishment and best of luck with Tampa Bay!!

This should be something that athletes in Hopewell should lock and realize that it is possible to make it from Hopewell and play at the professional level!!

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Hopewell HS Baseball

Hopewell’s Charlie Smetana Competing in Prestigious Prep Baseball 2025 Pennsylvania State Games

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

While the high school baseball season is technically over with, the reality is that baseball for kids that play it competitively is never over.

Whether it’s off-season workouts, or Pony and Colt League or a Travel League, baseball is pretty much a year around sport.

That’s certainly the case if you have aspirations of playing it beyond high school, which is the case with Hopewell senior Charlie Smetana.

Since playing Youth Baseball, Smetana’s goal has always been to play college baseball and he’s hoping this offseason is when he gets that opportunity from schools.

Following the Vikings season, Smetana started up play with the BV program and is also playing with a travel organization in Ohio. With these two programs, they’ll be plenty of opportunities to be viewed by college scouts.

Another such chance will be with a prestigious opportunity that Smetana was awarded with recently by receiving an invitation to play in the Prep Baseball 2025 Pennsylvania State games. This began yesterday in Palmyra, Pennsylvania and will through Thursday night.

This is a massive opportunity to play with over 600 of the best amateur baseball players in the state and more importantly, to be seen by college scouts from all levels of baseball. Since 2020 when the Prep Pennsylvania State games began, over 1,500+ players who competed in this have committed to college baseball programs.

This is not something that you can just sign up for, you must receive an invitation from the organization, which Smetana did.

Charlie Smetana

Hopewell’s Charlie Smetana

Once he arrives today, Smetana and other players will           , which will be followed tomorrow and Thursday by competing in games against the best players in the state.

Players that participate in the PA State Games will receive a full PBR profile update including a highlight, subscription-based video, stats, Vizual Edge, advanced metrics and more to help with their recruitment.

Vikings Sports Now wishes Smetana all the best over the next few days and can’t wait to report on that first scholarship offer that comes in.

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Opportunity to Get Instructions from Hopewell HS Baseball Coach

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

Youth sports have changed and advanced mightily over the years.

Sports are no longer a season sport and because of the opportunities that are available, they have become a year-round grind (if that’s the route you choose).

AAU, travel sports leagues continue to grow and advance and now a new opportunity is starting to form.

Various sports facilities across Western Pennsylvania are having former athletes and current coaches giving individual instruction to players.

This is available in all sports, especially in baseball and Vikings Sports Now wanted to make you aware of one involving a member of the Hopewell High School baseball coaching staff.

Vikings assistant coach Grant Smith is now giving private lessons at the Sports Zone Baseball Academy.

Coach Smith began his coaching career at Ambridge High School, where he coached for 4 years before moving over to Hopewell. Smith has become a valuable member of Coach Singletary’s staff because of his instruction skills and knowledge of the game.

Smith graduated from Ambridge High School where he was a 4-year letter winner, a WPIAL All-Star and Team Captain. During his senior season, he was named a Pre-Season Top Prospect by Prep Baseball Report. Following graduation from Ambridge, Smith earned a scholarship to play at Point Park, where he played for four seasons.

If your child wants to get taught by someone that knows the game and don’t want to spend the money that it costs for travel baseball, give Coach Smith a text (724-683-0204) to possibly set up a lesson with him and Sports Zone Baseball Academy.

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