Mike Vukovcan If the much-used slogan of good pitching beats good hitting holds true, then the 2025 Hopewell Vikings Baseball team has a chance to win a lot of games this season.
Head Coach Morgan Singletary and pitching coach Rich Absey will have David Medich, Kingston Krotec, Ben McDonald, Jake Knobloch, Payton Korker, Brody McCullough, and James Armstrong at their disposal.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
But make no mistake about it, the front of the rotation will be led by Medich and Krotec, who will give the Vikings an advantage on most nights.
For Medich, this will be his second year in the rotation after starting out his career at Hopewell as a closer. In fact, David was the late inning pitcher back in 2023 when Hopewell won the WPIAL Championship.
Hopewell Pitcher David Medich
Vikings Sports Now had the chance to talk with Medich about his expectations for 2025, his role on the team and started out getting his thoughts on being the only senior on the roster. Has he started to think about this being the final season and last time he’ll be doing certain things with Hopewell baseball.
“Not much, because a lot of our juniors and team leaders and great people,” said Medich. “We have a team full of leaders, which I think is a good thing opposed to just having one or two people.”
“I’m sure that will really start hitting me when the games actually start but I am glad that I don’t have to do the run again (laughing), I got my last run done.”
Medich was referring to yesterday being the annual Hopewell Team Bonding Day, part of which consists of the team going for a 4-mile team run. While that might have been difficult (LOL), he did enjoy the team meal at The Yard in Robinson and having some fun at the Steeltown Event Park where he and his teammates competed in paintball.
Hopewell 2025 Team Bonding Day
Hopewell 2025 Team Bonding Day
Competing is something Medich did quite well last year as the leader of the Vikings rotation. More times than naught, Medich gave his manager plenty of quality innings and his Vikings teammates a chance to win.
He’ll return to that role this season and has worked in the offseason to try and be an even better than he was a year ago
“I think I can be a better pitcher by having more pitches this year and having more time to work on my stuff than last year,” Medich told Vikings Sports Now. “Each year it’s different with pitching. Whether you find something new, or something didn’t work as good as it did last year. I think the experience of last year will also help me because I played against these guys last year and I’ll be seeing them against this year.”
David Medich
“I threw a lot of curveballs last year so I think people will expect that from me. So, I tried to work on my slider and other pitches and try and work away from the curveball. I think it’s going to really depend on the game. If I come out throwing a lot of curve balls and they still can’t hit it, I’ll likely keep going with it. But if they come out waiting on it, then I could switch it up.”
During the offseason, Medich told me that a portion of it included resting his right arm, which was used quite a bit. Converting to a starter after being a closer meant that he threw a ton more pitches than he did the previous season. Other things he worked on during the fall and winter months were lifting weights with the Hopewell strength and conditioning staff as well as working with coaches on pitches, in terms of what to throw and when to throw it.
Another factor that will help Medich is the depth that the staff will have this season. Instead of trying to get another inning out of him late in a game, the coaching staff will have the option of bringing in a fresh and lively arm. This could make Medich’s arm healthier and fresh longer into the season. In general, though, Medich is extremely excited about the overall depth of the staff.
“It’s going to be a lot better this year than it was last year because guys have had a year to develop,” said Medich. “People like Brody, Jake are also guys that will be able to help us. I think it’s really going to come down to if we can hit as a team because I think our pitching is going to be lights out this year. Every game we play this year; we’re going to have a good pitcher on the mound.”
And as I started off by saying, when you have good pitching, you’re giving yourself a chance to win, something Medich expects his team to do a lot of in his final season as a Viking.
“Our team wants to and is expecting to win it all. Our mindset is to win the WPIAL Championship.”
Medich and his teammates will open the season on the road against Shenango on March 14th before their Home Opener on March 18th against Riverside.
2 comments
Mike – is he Doc’s grandson?
David is Doc’s grandson.