Mike Vukovcan HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP– In sports, teams sometimes get in a zone and are dominant and that’s the place the Hopewell HS baseball team finds themselves in right now.
There’s still plenty of season left but Morgan Singletary’s team is playing as well as they have in years and today was another example of that.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
Led once again by the arm of starting pitcher Kingston Krotec and the red-hot bats in the lineup, Hopewell dominated North Catholic, 11-0 in a 5-inning win. This was the third consecutive game that Hopewell has put 10+ runs on the scoreboard.
The other very encouraging aspect to this win was that once again it was a total team effort as they received outstanding pitching, timely hitting and solid defense.
When those three things are working, you have a chance to win games and that’s exactly what Hopewell is doing as they improve their section record to 4-2, which puts them in a tie for second place with Beaver.
Krotec has made 3 starts this season and has recorded 3 complete games. Today against the Bobcats, ‘Kinger’ went 5 innings, allowing only 2 hits, 0 runs and struck out 7 batters.
“I feel really confident when the ball is in my hand and in a position to get a win for my team,” Krotec tells VSN. “Then when we put up runs like we did, it just settles me down.”
Offensively, the Vikings collected 11 hits and were led by sophomore second baseman Collin Davis who went 2-4 with a career-high 4 RBI. Sophomore outfielder James Armstrong stayed red-hot as he picked up 2 more hits and 3 RBI. Other key contributors were Krotec with 2 hits and 1 RBI, senior catcher Charlie Smetana with a big 2-run single, senior first baseman Logan Triscila with 1 hit and 2 runs and junior third baseman Jake Knobloch with a hit, walk and 2 runs.
“I’ve felt confident lately and feel like my approach has gotten much better and I feel like I’m seeing the ball a lot better than before,” said Davis. “It just feels really that good that our whole team is finding our grove. We’ve all put in a ton of work and it’s starting to show and it feels great.”
Most games have turning points and I thought the top of the 1st inning was just that for Hopewell.
North Catholic loaded the bases with 1 out and were in position to score first and potentially have a big inning but Krotec made sure that didn’t happen as he struck out the next two batters to end the threat and North Catholic’s best threat of the game.
“I had a little struggle in the first inning and made an error which is one me,” said Krotec. “So, I had to get that back for my team. When I got that pop up to center field that settled me down and then the two straight strikeouts were big and brought our team some energy going to the bottom of the inning.”
BOTTOM OF 1ST INNING- Armstrong and Drew Donovan started off the game and both reached on errors. Krotec followed that up with a single, which loaded the bases for Smetana, who came through with a 2-run single to right field and Hopewell led 2-0.
Still in the first inning, after Krotec scored on a passed ball, Davis delivered a clutch 2-out, 2-run single to center field, which scored Triscila and pinch-runner Jayvion Lindsey. Hopewell led 5-0 after the 1st inning.
TOP OF 2ND- After ending the 1st inning with 2 strikeouts, Krotec picked back up by striking out the side in the second.
TOP OF 3RD– Guess how Krotec got the first two outs in the 3rd inning, yep, he struck them out. That means that Krotec struck out seven consecutive North Catholic batters. Hopewell led 5-0.
Hopewell’s Kingston Krotec
BOTTOM OF 3RD– The Vikings put the game away in 3rd as they tacked on 4 more runs, which all came after 2 outs.
Both Knobloch and Davis reached base after getting hit by a pitch. Armstrong then came to the plate and roped a double into the right field corner to score both runners. After Donovan drew a walk, Krotec doubled to left, scoring Armstrong. Hopewell led 9-0 after 3 innings.
TOP OF 4TH– It was another easy 1-2-3 inning for Hopewell as Krotec got three fly ball outs, including one really nice running catch by right fielder Payton Korker.
BOTTOM OF 4TH– Hopewell tacked on 2 more runs in this inning as Davis once again came through with a 2-run single, which scored Ben McDonald and Knoboch. Hopewell’s lead increased to 11-0.
TOP OF 5TH- Because Hopewell had a 10-run lead, Krotec needed just a scoreless inning to end this game, which is what he did. Out No.1 came on a fly ball to Armstrong in left and the final 2 outs of the game came on ground outs to Davis at second.
FINAL SCORE: HOPEWELL 11 NORTH CATHOLIC 0
Hopewell will return to action on Friday as they have a non-section game against Montour and don’t return to section play until Monday, April 20th when they’ll host Hampton.
“The mindset of this team is just to go out there and get the job done,” said Davis. “We have been paying great, so the confidence is high and we need to keep it going.”
“I feel like this team is really confident at the plate and when we put up runs, our pitchers just have to throw strikes and that puts us in a position to win.”
Which is exactly what they’ve been doing. Winning is Fun!
