Mike Vukovcan Avonworth- We had a pitchers duel at Avonworth High School between Drew Donovan and Patrick Bykowski.
Donovan was outstanding as he pitched the best outing of his high school career but unfortunately, Hopewell fell 1-0 to Avonworth.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
The junior right-hander pitched a complete game, 6 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Donovan isn’t going to blow you away with his stuff as he’s very much a pitcher that is effective because of his command and an outstanding curveball.
Because he doesn’t strike many guys out, Donovan relies on his defense to make plays and the Vikings did that today as they didn’t commit a single error.
In the first inning, Hopewell turned a double play as Metz hit a line drive to Brody McCullough at first, who caught it and doubled off the runner at first.
Avonworth scored their only run in the second inning and were threatening to score more as they had runners at 1st and 3rd with 1 out. However, Donovan stood strong by recording a strikeout and then got a pop up to Jake Knobloch at shortstop.
Donovan had a quick 1-2-3 3rd inning and with 2 outs in the 4th inning, great defense closed out the frame. Smetana gunned it down to first base, which ended up getting the runner in a rundown, which ended in Donovan tagging the runner out.
Donovan cruised the rest of the way but the Hopewell batters couldn’t anytime going against Bykowski, who allowed just one hit, a 4th inning single to Charlie Smetana.
Fortunately for Hopewell, this wasn’t a section game. After the weekend off, the Vikings take on North Catholic on Monday in an important section contest.
