Mike Vukovcan Following a disappointing 2025 season, which made the offseason extremely long, the Hopewell HS Baseball team took the field for the first time in 2026.
This afternoon, the Vikings traveled to Washington County to take on a talented Peters Township team, which is 5A.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
The key for Hopewell to turn their fortunes around will rest upon their bats and what they can do offensively. The pitching will be there and should be a strength so if the offense can support them, the Vikings will have a chance.
A&S Federal Credit Union are proud sponsors of Hopewell Boys and Girls High School, Junior High and Youth Sports.
Today against Peters Township, in a scrimmage like environment, Hopewell was able to put up 9 runs and rallied from behind to come away with a 9-9 tie.
Senior catcher Charlie Smetana was the offensive star for Hopewell as he displayed tremendous power, clubbing a home run along with a deep double to right field that hit off the wall. If Smetana can be a consistent run producer with power from the No. 3 hole, that would be huge for Hopewell.
Hopewell’s Charlie Smetana
The other bright spot in the lineup today was sophomore Jayvion Lindsey who went 2-for-2, with a walk and 2 RBIs. In the biggest at-bat of the game, Lindsey came through with a clutch 2 out, 2-run single in the 7th inning to tie up the game at 9.
OTHER GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
*Senior SS Drew Donovan went 1-3 and drove in 2 runs.
*Senior Kingston Krotec went 1-2 with 2 runs scored.
*Senior Logan Triscilla pitched 2 scoreless innings (6th and 7th innings), allowing 0 hits and 2 strikeouts.
*In the field, Donovan and Collin Davis made spectacular plays at short and second, respectively.
Hopewell will return to the field for another scrimmage on Monday against Ellwood City before opening the regular season at Shenango on March 18th.
HOPEWELL JUNIOR VARSITY RECAP AGAINST PETERS TOWNSHIP
The Hopewell JV team hosted Peters Township and were shut out 10-0. The fact of the matter is that the opposition team was extremely deep and talented. That’s not any sort of excuse but a fact. Their pitchers threw with nice velocity and all starters in their lineup were more than capable of hitting.
This Hopewell team is one that’s growing and still in the developmental phase of their high school careers. Winning is always fun, but this could be year that’s about development and highlighting positives from within the game.
With that mind, here were some positive things to take from today’s game.
*Freshman Andrew Arzberger pitched two scoreless innings (5th and 6th innings), allowing just 1 hit and striking out 3 batters.
*Sophomore Cam Hoth pitched 2 innings, allowing 6 runs but only 3 were earned. Hoth did a nice job pitching inside along with hitting the outside corner. Hoth recorded 2 strikeouts.
*Sophomore Owen Ackerman pitched a scoreless 7th inning.
*Freshman Luke Vukovcan started and went 2 innings. The first inning was clean as he set Peters Township down 1-2-3 with 2 strikeouts before giving up 4 runs in the 2nd inning.
*After allowing all 10 runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings, Hopewell’s pitchers pitched 3 scoreless innings to end the game.
*Although he didn’t record a hit, Ethan Adams put the ball in play all three times and played solid defense both at 2nd base and in CF.
*CF Reed Budavich played a solid defensive game in CF as did Ryan Gaguzis in LF, who also collected a hit.
*Hopewell had good plate discipline, collecting 6 walks (Vukovcan with 2 and 1 each from Jaxsen Covalt, Cam Hoth, Gaguzis)
*Covalt made 2 nice plays at SS for Hopewell.
Like with the varsity team, whether or not this team is able to enjoy success in the standings will be dependent upon if they’re able to generate offense.
They’ll have another chance to do that on Monday when they travel out to Ellwood City for a scrimmage.
