Mike Vukovcan After practicing and preparing for the last couple of months, the Hopewell Middle School baseball team opened the 2025 season this afternoon.
Head coach BJ Rankin and his team traveled to Montour to take on the Spartans. One thing to keep in mind, this Hopewell middle school team is comprised of 7th graders, although they’ll be taking on 8th graders. This will no doubt be challenging but more importantly, it’ll be good competition and a learning experience.
Today after a rough start, Hopewell showed character as they battled back to make it a game before ultimately falling to Montour, 12-9.
Pitchers today for Hopewell were Connor Reed, Tyler Hoffman, Noah Honess and Liam Rankin.
Things started well for Hopewell as Vin Smetana led off the game with a walk and followed that up with a stolen base but was ultimately stranded there.
In the bottom of the first, Montour scored 6 runs, 3 of which came after 2 outs. Montour scored those runs despite only recording 1 hit, as they walked 5 times and reached on 2 Hopewell errors.
Hoffman pitched an effective second inning, allowing 2 unearned runs. Two Montour runners scored in this innings despite not recording a hit (walk and an error).
Hopewell got on the scoreboard in the 3rd inning. Colby Cunningham led off the inning with a single and 1 out later, Reed drew a walk. Then with runners at 1st and 3rd and 2 out, Cunningham would score on a passed ball. Montour now led 8-1.
After pitching well and not throwing a ton of pitches in the 2nd inning, Hoffman went back out to pitch the 3rd inning. Tyler once again did his job as he pitched a scoreless frame, only facing 4 Montour hitters. Outs were recorded courtesy a flyout to Brandon Cecchini in left, Hoffman fielded a groundball and so did Grey McIllvain at 3rd base.
The Vikings got back in the game in a big-time way in the 4th inning as they scored 8 runs.
Liam Rankin drove in Noah Honess with RBI single and later in the inning, Cecchini also came through with an RBI single to cut Montour’s lead to 8-3.
Hopewell wasn’t done in that inning as Cunningham drew a bases loaded walk to make it 8-4. Montour made a pitching change but the same result as Smetana also drew a walk to cut the gap to 8-5. Next up, Reed singled to left field and now Hopewell now trailed by just two runs, 8-6.
Hoffman stepped to the plate next and came through with a sacrifice fly to score Cunningham. After another bases loaded walk to Chandler Yesionek, Hopewell tied the game after trailing 8-0.
Montour responded in the bottom of the 4th inning with 4 runs of their own to regain the lead 12-9.
Rankin came on to pitch the 5th inning and was lights out as struck out the side, needing just 13 pitches.
Hopewell had a chance in the final inning as they put two runners on with just 1 out but following a single by Hoffman, the Montour CF made a nice throw to the plate to cut down the Hopewell runner.
Final Score: Montour 12 Hopewell 9
Hopewell 3 Stars of the Game:
3rd Star ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
Colby Cunningham and Vin Smetana: Cunningham reached base 3 times (1 hit, 2 walks), scored 2 runs and from the 10 spot, did a tremendous job turning over the lineup.
As the leadoff hitter, Smetana did his job of getting on base 3 times (3 walks), while also recording an RBI.
2nd Star ⭐️⭐️
Liam Rankin: Rankin pitched a 1-2-3 inning, striking out all 3 batters he faced. At the plate, Liam was 1-3, with 2 RBI. He’s going to be expected to drive in runs and he did that today.
1st Star ⭐️
Tyler Hoffman: He came on to pitch in the 2nd and 3rd innings and settled things down for the Vikings, which allowed them to get back in the game. Tyler pitched two innings, allowing 0 hits, 2 runs (0 earned runs) and striking out one. At the plate, Hoffman was 1-3 with an RBI.
The Hopewell Middle School returns to action on Friday as they host Beaver.
