Mike Vukovcan Hopewell Township- The Hopewell HS Baseball team entered this week on a bit of a high as their recent play got them back into playoff contention.
The Vikings entered the week tied for 4th place in the section with Central Valley. The top 4 teams in the section qualify for the playoffs. With 4 section games left, Hopewell was looking to sweep Central Valley and at the very least, come away with a split.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
Unfortunately, neither of those happened as Central Valley won the opener on 5-2 and finished the sweep today with a 13-5 victory.
Following today’s loss, Hopewell finds themselves with a section record of 4-6 and face a difficult road to the playoffs. Although this isn’t official, I believe Hopewell’s only path to the playoffs is sweeping a 2-game series next week against Blackhawk. Class 4A Section 1 is so tight and with 2 games remaining, plenty can happen at the top, but Hopewell’s only focus now is finding a way to win twice next week against the Couguars.
In today’s game, Central Valley scored 9 runs in the first 4 innings which was too much for the Vikings offense to overcome. After trailing 9-1, Hopewell made a bit of a comeback in the 4th inning by scoring 4 runs. The highlight in that inning was a 3-run HR to center field by Ben McDonald to cut the deficit to 4 runs.
The crucial two-game series next week against Blackhawk starts on Monday at Blackhawk, with Game No. 2 taking place on Tuesday at Hopewell.
