Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell 12-Year-Old All-Stars are finishing their final tournament in youth baseball bringing the big bats.
A day after Austin Gallagher and Elliott Mancos homered against the Mon River Mudcats, the Vikings hit three more homeruns this morning.
In the start of hopefully a long day for Hopewell, Gallagher, Kruz Krotec and Rhett Rankin launched homeruns in their 16-6 win over Bauerstown. The bomb from Krotec was a Grand Slam!
With the win, Hopewell advances to the semifinals in the Shaler Tournament.
For the game, Hopewell batters collected 16 hits, including 3 each from Krotec, Gallagher and Wade Enders. RBI getters for the Vikings were Krotec with 6, Rankin with 3, Gallagher with 2 and 1 each from Wes Gigliotti, Enders, Henry Dunn, and Eli Seech.
SCORING SUMMARY:
Bottom of 2nd– Bauerstown took a 1-0 lead but Hopewell countered with two of their own to take the lead. Gallagher led off the inning and on the first pitch he saw, Austin cranked a homerun to right field, the game was tied at 1.
Hopewell’s Austin Gallagher
With 1 out, Colby Cunningham singled to left and went on to steal second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then stole home. Hopewell led 2-1.
Bottom of 3rd– Bauerstown tied the game at 2 in the top of the inning but once again, Hopewell had a response. Gigliotti drew a 1-out walk and quickly stole second base. Then with 2 outs, Enders singled to left field and drove in Gigliotti, Hopewell led 3-2. Next up, Dunn drew a walk, which advanced Enders to second. Gallagher then continued with his hot bat by singling to right field to bring in Enders, Hopewell led 4-2. Rankin stepped to the plate with 2 on and the ‘Rhett Bomb’ hit a bomb to straight away center field to bring in Dunn and Gallagher, Hopewell now led 7-2.
Top of 4th– Bauerstown is a good team and weren’t going to quit. In the 4th they got themselves right back in the game. Brandon Cecchini entered the game with the score now 7-4 and with runners at 2nd and 3rd with 0 out. Brandon did a terrific job by getting three groundball outs to Enders at third base. Bauerstown did score two more runs to make it 7-6 but Hopewell still had the lead.
Bottom of 4th– The Hopewell offense continued to produce and quickly regained a comfortable lead. With 1 out, Cecchini, Seech and Gigliotti drew walks. Then with the bases loaded, Krotec drove a 0-1 pitch to deep left field for a grand slam. Hopewell now led 11-6.
Hopewell’s Kruz Krotec
Top of 5th– HC Dave Gigliotti then brought Krotec in to try and main the lead and Kruz did the job. The inning started with two strikeouts from Krotec, followed by a ground ball out to Elliott Mancos at second base.
Bottom of 5th– Hopewell went to the bottom of the 5th needing 5 runs to end the game (10 run rule) and that’s exactly what they did. With 1 out, Cunningham drew a walk, followed by a single to right by Mancos. Then with 2 outs, Seech stepped up and hit an RBI single to center, driving in Mancos. Hopewell led 12-6. The top of the order stepped to the plate and ended the game. Gigliotti started things with an RBI single to drive in Cecchini. Next up, Krotec continued his monster game with a 2-run single to bring home Seech and Gigliotti. The game then ended as Dunn stroked a single to right, scoring Krotec.
FINAL SCORE- HOPEWELL 16 BAUERSTOWN 6
Good luck in the semifinals Hopewell!
