Mike Vukovcan SOUTH SIDE– The Hopewell Vikings Pony League (Team Reed) team took on South Side tonight and it turned into a pitcher’s duel.
Both teams combined for just 9 hits and 3 runs, thankfully for Hopewell they scored one more run than South Side, enroute to a 2-1 win. With the win, Team Reed improves their record on the season to 4-1-1.
For the Vikings, Connor Reed and Liam Rankin were dominant and completely shut down the Rams. Reed got the start and went 4 innings, allowing just 3 hits, 1 earned run and struck out 6 batters. Rankin entered in the 5th and went the rest of the way, giving up just 2 hits and striking out 4 batters.
Reed and Rankin were helped by solid defense as Hopewell committed just one error and made the plays behind their pitcher.
GAME RECAP-
Bottom of the 1st– Hopewell took a 1-0 lead in the Top of the 1st inning on a RBI groundout by Andrew Arzberger. South Side looked like they were going to at least tie the game in the bottom of the inning, but Reed pitched his way out of a jam. With runners at 1st and 3rd and 1 out, Reed went on to strike out the next two batters.
Bottom of the 2nd– South Side ties the game at 1 and had a runner on base with 1 out, but once again Reed ended the inning with back-to-back strike outs. Game tied at 1.
Top of the 3rd- Reed, Richard Kurz and Arzberger walked to start the inning and with the bases loaded and 0 out, Logan Sweesy hit a Sac Fly to scored Reed and Hopewell regained the lead 2-1.
Bottom of the 3rd– An easy 1-2-3 inning for Reed as he got two ground outs (one to Ethan Adams at 2nd and the other to Arzberger at first).
Bottom of the 5th– Rankin enters to replace Reed and had an easy inning by striking out the first two batters.
Bottom of the 6th– Another relatively easy inning for Rankin. The first out came on a ground out to Yannessa at 3rd base, out No. 2 came via a strikeout and then after a South Side single, the inning ended when the runner at 1st was picked off by Sweesy (catcher). Hopewell still led 2-1.
Bottom of the 7th– Hopewell needed 3 more outs and Rankin stayed on to close out the game. South Side led off the inning with single, which was followed by a stolen base. The next South Side batter grounded out to Adams at 2nd base. On the play, the runner moved to 3rd base. South Side now had the tying run at 3rd with just 1 out. However, Rankin had ice in his veins and didn’t crumble. Liam struck out the next batter for the second out. After walking the next batter and having him steal second, South Side had the winning run at 2nd. But Rankin ended the game on a ground out to Kurtz at shortstop.
HOPEWELL WINS 2-1!!
Next up for Hopewell/Team Reed is a matchup against undefeated Beaver (7-0) (Team Hamilton) on Thursday. Good luck Hopewell!
