Mike Vukovcan Shaler Township- The Hopewell HS baseball stayed hot as they defeat Shaler, 7-2, giving the Vikings their 6th consecutive win.
The win improves Hopewell’s overall record to 7-3 and their third impressive non-section win of the season with the first two coming against Montour and Avonworth. Shaler, which is a 5A program, is the defending WPIAL champion and have won two of the last three 5A WPIAL Championships.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
This may sound like a broken record but it’s true. The formula for victory was solid pitching and timely hitting. For the 8th time in 10 games this season, Hopewell pitchers held the opposition to 3 runs or less.
This afternoon, it was the combination of senior right-handers Kingston Krotec and Payton Korker.
Kingston pitched the first 4 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned run), 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. As he’s been all season, Korker was excellent as he went the final 3 innings, allowing just 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
The Hopewell lineup banged out 11 hits and were led by leadoff hitter James Armstrong, who went 4-for-5 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. Senior outfielder Ben McDonald went 2-for-3, including his second home run of the season. Collin Davis, James Gill, Logan Triscila, Kingston Krotec and Drew Donovan each picked up a hit apiece.
Tip of the cap to Donovan, who collected a career-high 4 RBI.
Hopewell jumped out to an early 4-1 lead after two innings and never looked back.
After a day off tomorrow, Hopewell will play another non-section game and will be challenged as they take on Shenango, who has a record of 9-1.
