Mike Vukovcan HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP– Sports can be great, sports can be exciting, but sports can also be extremely frustrating.
Today’s high school baseball game between Hopewell and North Catholic was a perfect example of that.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
When you’re on a winning streak, the things that happened to the Vikings don’t happen and they go the other way. However, when you’re struggling, things play out like they did this afternoon.
For 6 of the 7 innings, Hopewell looked and for the most part, played like the better team. Unfortunately, the No. 4 ranked North Catholic Trojans put things together in the 6th inning and that was enough to go on to a 5-1 win.
Senior right-hander David Medich started for Hopewell and deserved a better fate, but sports can be cruel and although he certainly pitched well enough to win, it won’t show up that way in the box score.
Medich pitched 6 innings, allowing 8 hits, 4 earned runs, 0 walks and struck out 10. However, this game was scoreless going to the top of the 6th with Medich’s stat line showing- 5 innings, 0 runs, 3 hits and 7 K’s. Unfortunately, North Catholic’s top of the order started the 6th inning, and they did their jobs by scoring 4 runs.
Despite the loss, Hopewell arguably played their most complete game of the season as they hit collected a season-high 7 hits. The frustrating part of this game was that in six of the seven innings today, Hopewell had a run in scoring position but only scored 1 run. And it wasn’t because they didn’t hit the ball hard or well, they either hit a ball right at the North Catholic defender or a ball wouldn’t fall. Here’s some examples.
HOPWELL PLAYED WELL ENOUGH TO WIN, BUT-
 1ST INNING: Kingston Krotec singled to lead off the game and eventually reached second base. With 2 outs, Logan Triscila hit a sharp single to left but the North Catholic left fielder was playing shallow and Triscila’s shot to the outfield reached the left fielder quickly and didn’t allow Krotec to score. A ball hit softer or to the left or right of the outfielder and Krotec would’ve scored. BUT….
2ND INNING: Collin Davis did a great job of hitting to lead off the inning. The freshman slapped an 0-2 curveball to right field. However, a couple of pitches later, Davis broke for second base against the left-hander and appeared to beat the throw to second base as the throw from the first baseman was high, but the umpire saw it differently. I didn’t agree with the call, but I wasn’t the umpire. Wouldn’t you know, the next hitter, Brody McCullough singled to center field. It didn’t end there in the second as the Vikings had runners as 1st and 2nd with 2 outs and Krotec laced a ball to center field, BUT, it was right at the center fielder. A foot to his left or right and that’s a sure double which would’ve scored 2 runs. BUT….
3RD INNING: Triscilla hit a deep double to center field with 2 outs but was stranded.
4TH INNING: With 2 outs, McCullough and Drew Donovan reached based. With runners and 1st and 2nd, the short stop was cheating towards second base in order to hold on McCullough. Next up, Krotec once again hit a hard ball up the middle and if the short stop wasn’t playing towards second and was in his normal spot on defense, that would’ve been a single. But instead, it went right to the short stop for the 3rd out.
5TH INNING: James Armstrong and Charlie Smetana started the inning by reaching base and Hopewell would eventually load the bases but couldn’t bring anyone in. During that inning, Jake Knobloch hit a line drive near the line in right and it went foul by a foot or so. The game remained scoreless.
6TH INNING: Hopewell eventually scored on a fielders choice by Armstrong and had a chance to score more but Armstrong and Smetana were stranded.
Krotec, Smetana, Triscila, Davis, McCullough and Donovan all had multiple at-bats that were very good.
FINAL SCORE: NORTH CATHOLIC 5 HOPEWELL 1
These two teams will play again tomorrow (weather permitting) as the scene shifts to North Catholic High School.
