Mike Vukovcan SOUTH SIDE– The All-Star season is underway for teams in the Hopewell Vikings Youth Baseball season. Over the next month, players in various age levels will begin competing in a number of All-Star Tournaments across Western Pennsylvania.
This weekend, teams in the Hopewell 8-year-old and 10-year-old divisions started competing in tournaments and enjoyed plenty of success.
The Vikings 8-year-old team started action in the South Side Summer Slam Classic on Friday night and Saturday morning and came away with 2 impressive wins!
Last night, Hopewell defeated Findlay Township, 18-15 and this morning, the Vikings beat Central Valley, 17-3.
RECAP OF WIN OVER FINDLAY TOWNSHIP:
This was a high-scoring game, but the difference was Hopewell’s top of the order. The top five batters in Hopewell’s lineup (Grayden McNally, Declan Rinaldi, Trent Michael, Brody Tournay and Mason Thumm) were a combined 17-19, 14 runs and 15 RBIs. Congrats to Tournay and McNally who hit 3 HR’s (over the fence). Brody hit 2, while Grayden hit one.
The Hopewell batters were able to bang out 23 hits and were led by McNally and Michael, who each collected 4 hits apiece. Three Viking players had 3 hit nights, Rinaldi, Tournay and Thumm.
Tournay was the cleanup hitter, and he certainly did his job by collecting 7 RBI’s, including those 2 home runs. McNally and Thumm each had 3 RBIs, while Rinaldi and Michael had two.
Hopewell jumped out to a 9-7 lead after 2 innings, but Findlay scored 2 runs in the top of the 4th to tie things up. However, the Vikings scored 4 in the bottom of the 4th and after holding Findlay scoreless in the top of the 5th, Hopewell came back with 5 more in the bottom of the 5th to take a 18-9 lead.
The big shot in the 4th inning was a 3-run HR by McNally to a give Hopewell a 12-9 lead. Then in the 5th inning, Tournay clubbed a grand slam to center field to give Hopewell a 18-9 lead.
FINAL SCORE: HOPEWELL 18 FINDLAY TOWNSHIP 15
RECAP OF WIN OVER CENTRAL VALLEY:
What 24 hours for Brody Tournay. After hitting two home runs on Friday night, Brody came back this morning and hit two more!! In two games, Tourney went a combined 7 for 8 with 4 HR’s and 11 RBIs. All 4 of the home runs were over the fence.
The Vikings jumped out a 11-0 lead and ever looked back as they scored runs in all 5 innings. Despite only playing 5 innings, Hopewell’s batters collected 28 hits.
Leading the team with 4 hits apiece were Tournay, Declan Rinaldi and Hudson Lavia. Grayden McNally, Trent Michael and August Arostegui both had 3 hits.
In terms of RBI leaders, Tournay led the way with 4, Rinaldi and Arostegui each had 3 and Trent Michael, Mason Thumm, Hudson Lavia and Obie DeCanio registered 2 apiece.
FINAL SCORE: HOPEWELL 17 CENTRAL VALLEY 3
WINNING IS FUN (especially in tournaments)!!
The Hopewell 8-year-old team will be back in action tournament in elimination play. Good luck boys!
