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Hopewell Middle School Baseball

Hopewell Middle School Baseball

Hopewell Middle School Loses to South Side

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

The Hopewell Middle School Baseball team was back in action yesterday afternoon at South Side. Things started out well before the South Side bats heated up on their way to an 11-2 victory.

The biggest bright spot from Friday was the pitching performance of right-hander Noah Honess.

Honess got the start and pitched a scoreless first 2 innings and almost made it 3 before a 2-out 2-run single gave South Side a 2-0 lead.

Honess went 3 innings, allowing 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and struck out 4 batters. This was definitely Noah’s best outing of the season and something to build on.

South Side threatened in the 1st inning as the leadoff hitter doubled but Noah recorded a strikeout and got out of the frame on a line drive to Vin Smetana at shortstop.

In the South Side second inning, Honess struck out 2 of the Rams batters.

Trailing 2-0 in the 4th inning, Hopewell tied the game up on an RBI single by Liam Rankin and then Channing Yesionek scored on a ground ball by Christian Fisher that was scored an error.

South Side immediately answered with fours runs both in the 4th and 5th innings.

Hopewell’s offense did come up with 8 hits- Smetana hit and a walk, Connor Reed 1 hit, Ty Hoffman 2 hits, Yesionek 1 hit and a walk, Honess 1 hit, Rankin 1 hit Julius Banks 1 hit.

On the mound, Reed pitched 1 inning allowing 2 earned runs and 2 strikeouts while Yesninek came on to face two batters in the 6th inning and struck them both out.

The Hopewell middle school team returns to the field next Wednesday when they’ll host Montour.

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Hopewell Middle School Baseball

Despite Score, Hopewell Freshman Shows Big Improvement

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

Hopewell Township- You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘the final score wasn’t indicative of how a team played’.

That was certainly the case of todays Middle School baseball game between Hopewell and North Allegheny.

Coming off of a 10- 0 (5 innings) loss last Monday to Seneca Valley, Hopewell was faced with the challenge of taking on North Allegheny, one of the biggest and most talent rich school districts in the WPIAL.

This was going to be a challenge for this young team but for 6 innings, the Vikings stood toe to toe with North Allegheny before things fell apart in the final inning.

My biggest take from this game was that Hopewell trailed just 6-4 going to the Top of the 6th inning and not that the final score was 18-4 (NA scored 10 runs in the final inning).

Five Positives From Today:

1. Andrew Arzberger’s Peformance: Arzberger got the start and all things considered, he pitched well. The left-hander went 3 innings, allowing 5 runs (4 earned runs), walked only 1 and struck out 4.


The key for Arzberger was keeping the ball down in the zone because when he did that, he was very effective. This start was definitely one to build on and be encouraged by.

At the plate, Arzberger was 3-for-3 , including an RBI double in the first inning that scored Luke Vukovcan and gave Hopewell a 1-0 lead.

2. Cam Hoth: For the second straight game, Hoth accounted well for himself on the mound. Hoth took over for Arzberger in the 4th inning and over the 4th, 5th and 6th innings allowed just 3 runs against a very good hitting team.

Hopewell’s Cam Hoth

Hoth came back out for the 7th inning and just ran out of gas. I’m going to remember his performance in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings and not the final frame. Nice job Cam.

3. Vikings At-The Plate: Hopewell was noticeably better at the plate today compared to the Seneca Valley game. In the season opener, they struck out 10 times in 5 innings. In 7 innings today, Hopewell cut that number down to 9.

Even in at least 4 of the at-bats that resulted in strike outs, the Hopewell batter battled and worked the pitcher to a full count.

Players like Ethan Adams, Ryan Gaguzis, Owen Ackerman and Reed Budavich had productive at-bats where they put the ball in play that resulted in a runner scoring or put down a sacrifice bunt when called upon to do it.

4. Ethan Adams in the Field: While the Vikings still need to clean up their defense, a definite bright spot was the defensive play of Adams at 3rd base. Adams made two putouts and caught two pop ups. Great effort in the field Ethan. Also want to mention that Reed Budavich made 3 catches in center field.

5. Luke Vukovcan at Catcher: I do my best not to mention my son in stories but Luke did a solid job behind the plate. He did a good job keeping things in front of him and his throws down to second were impressive. In fact, Luke threw out a North Allegheny runner trying to steal second in the 3rd inning and came close to throwing out a second one.

As I’ve written a few different times, this season will not be about wins and losses and instead will be all about individual development of the players. This team showed nice growth from game one to game two.

Should also point out that North Allegheny’s 9th game of the season compared to just two for Hopewell.

This Freshman team has a few days off before returning to action next Tuesday at Pine-Richland.

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Hopewell Middle School Baseball

Hopewell Middle School Baseball Loses to Beaver, 4-1

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP- While the result isn’t what the team wanted, there very plenty of positives to take from Hopewell’s game against Beaver.

The Vikings Middle School team had their 2025 Home Opener yesterday at the Junior High Field and dropped a 4-1 decision to the Bobcats.

Now that the bad news is out of the way, there were plenty of good things that Coach BJ Rankin and his staff will be able to take from the game.

OUTSTANDING PITCHING:
First and foremost was the pitching that he received. In the opener against Montour, Hopewell gave up 12 runs as opposed to just 4 yesterday against Beaver.

Ryder Kostrick started for Hopewell and was outstanding. After the first inning jitters were out of the way, Kostrick was dominant on the mound as he pitched 3 innings, allowing only 3 hits, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. Both runs that Ryder allowed in the 1st inning were unearned.

Vikings Sports Now was in attendance yesterday and Kostrick seemingly got better every inning. In his 3 innings and 50 pitches, Kostrick’s fastball was electric and combining that with this slider made him very difficult to hit.

Other Hopewell pitchers on Friday were Anthony Ventresca, Channing Yesionek and Liam Rankin.

After Kostrick’s velocity, Ventresca came on in the 4th and was effective with his change in pitching velocity. Ventresca went 1 inning, allowing 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 walks and struck out a batter.

Yesionek entered in the 5th inning and like Kostrick, was outstanding. Channing showed tremendous poise for it being his first outing of the season. He got in a couple of jams but each time, stayed mentally tough and pitched his way out of it. Yesionek has nice velocity on his fastball, has an effective breaking pitch and has the demeanor you want in a pitcher. Yesionek pitched 2.1 innings, allowing 1 hit, 0 runs, 3 walks, struck out 4 batters and threw 45 pitches.

Liam Rankin relieved him in the 7th inning and recorded the final two outs. Rankin has pitched in both games this season and hasn’t allowed a run in 1.2 innings pitched.

SOLID DEFENSE:
Although 2 errors were recorded in the scorebook, Hopewell’s defenders played a solid overall game. Beaver is a team that can hit and puts the ball in play, so Hopewell needed to bring their gloves and for a large majority of the game they did just that.

Just some of the players that made above average plays in the field (I apologize if I miss someone as I tried to keep track) were: Kostrick on a line drive right back to the mound, Brandon Cecchini with the defensive play of the game as he charged in to make a headfirst sliding catch in left field, Vin Smetana was a rock at shortstop, David Johnson made an above average running catch from second base out to short right field, Grey McIllvain made two solid plays from 3rd base and Connor Reed showed nice range when he was moved to first base.

If this pitching and defense continues for Hopewell, the wins will surely come.

HITING REVIEW:
For the game, Hopewell recorded only 4 hits as Tyler Hoffman, Kostrick, Cecchini and McIIvain all recorded singles. While the hit total was low, that doesn’t mean that Hopewell didn’t record some solid at-bats. Credit to Beaver for playing solid defense.

Smetana was robbed of a hit by the Beaver left fielder on a line drive, in his second at-bat, Kostrick smoked a ball to deep center field, McIllvain smashed a line drive back up the middle but the Beaver pitcher got his glove up and snagged it and robbed Grey of a single and the Beaver second baseman snared what looked to be a line drive single by Yesionek.

Another positive was that of their 27 at-bats, Hopewell only struck out 6 times.

The Hopewell Middle School team will have two games next week- Wednesday at Blackhawk and then Friday, they’ll host New Castle.

HOPEWELL 3 STARS OF THE GAME:

Third Star ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
Grey McIllvain- Grey had a solid game displaying nice defense and a good arm at 3rd base and had two really good at-bats.

2nd Star ⭐️⭐️
Channing Yesionek- As mentioned earlier, big-time pitching effort displayed by Channing.

First Star ⭐️
Ryder Kostrick- Ryder was the top player on the field both offensive and defensively for Hopewell. His pitching was lights out.

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Hopewell Middle School Baseball

Hopewell Middle School Baseball Drops Season Opener to Montour

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

After practicing and preparing for the last couple of months, the Hopewell Middle School baseball team opened the 2025 season this afternoon.

Head coach BJ Rankin and his team traveled to Montour to take on the Spartans. One thing to keep in mind, this Hopewell middle school team is comprised of 7th graders, although they’ll be taking on 8th graders. This will no doubt be challenging but more importantly, it’ll be good competition and a learning experience.

Today after a rough start, Hopewell showed character as they battled back to make it a game before ultimately falling to Montour, 12-9.

Pitchers today for Hopewell were Connor Reed, Tyler Hoffman, Noah Honess and Liam Rankin.

Things started well for Hopewell as Vin Smetana led off the game with a walk and followed that up with a stolen base but was ultimately stranded there.

In the bottom of the first, Montour scored 6 runs, 3 of which came after 2 outs. Montour scored those runs despite only recording 1 hit, as they walked 5 times and reached on 2 Hopewell errors.

Hoffman pitched an effective second inning, allowing 2 unearned runs. Two Montour runners scored in this innings despite not recording a hit (walk and an error).

Hopewell got on the scoreboard in the 3rd inning.  Colby Cunningham led off the inning with a single and 1 out later, Reed drew a walk. Then with runners at 1st and 3rd and 2 out, Cunningham would score on a passed ball. Montour now led 8-1.

After pitching well and not throwing a ton of pitches in the 2nd inning, Hoffman went back out to pitch the 3rd inning. Tyler once again did his job as he pitched a scoreless frame, only facing 4 Montour hitters. Outs were recorded courtesy a flyout to Brandon Cecchini in left, Hoffman fielded a groundball and so did Grey McIllvain at 3rd base.

The Vikings got back in the game in a big-time way in the 4th inning as they scored 8 runs.

Liam Rankin drove in Noah Honess with RBI single and later in the inning, Cecchini also came through with an RBI single to cut Montour’s lead to 8-3.

Hopewell wasn’t done in that inning as Cunningham drew a bases loaded walk to make it 8-4. Montour made a pitching change but the same result as Smetana also drew a walk to cut the gap to 8-5. Next up, Reed singled to left field and now Hopewell now trailed by just two runs, 8-6.

Hoffman stepped to the plate next and came through with a sacrifice fly to score Cunningham. After another bases loaded walk to Chandler Yesionek, Hopewell tied the game after trailing 8-0.

Montour responded in the bottom of the 4th inning with 4 runs of their own to regain the lead 12-9.

Rankin came on to pitch the 5th inning and was lights out as struck out the side, needing just 13 pitches.

Hopewell had a chance in the final inning as they put two runners on with just 1 out but following a single by Hoffman, the Montour CF made a nice throw to the plate to cut down the Hopewell runner.

Final Score: Montour 12 Hopewell 9

Hopewell 3 Stars of the Game:

3rd Star ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️

Colby Cunningham and Vin Smetana: Cunningham reached base 3 times (1 hit, 2 walks), scored 2 runs and from the 10 spot, did a tremendous job turning over the lineup.

As the leadoff hitter, Smetana did his job of getting on base 3 times (3 walks), while also recording an RBI.

2nd Star ⭐️⭐️

Liam Rankin: Rankin pitched a 1-2-3 inning, striking out all 3 batters he faced. At the plate, Liam was 1-3, with 2 RBI. He’s going to be expected to drive in runs and he did that today.

1st Star ⭐️

Tyler Hoffman: He came on to pitch in the 2nd and 3rd innings and settled things down for the Vikings, which allowed them to get back in the game. Tyler pitched two innings, allowing 0 hits, 2 runs (0 earned runs) and striking out one. At the plate, Hoffman was 1-3 with an RBI.

The Hopewell Middle School returns to action on Friday as they host Beaver.

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