Mike Vukovcan The second season began Monday night with the opening of the 2026 376 Western Pennsylvania Pony League Playoffs.
12 teams advanced to the playoffs, including two teams from Hopewell (which speaks to the talented baseball players in our area).
Established in 1986, family owned and serving the Beaver County community for over 40 years. Serving breakfast favorites and lunch specials.
Unfortunately, only one of those teams advanced to the next round.
Hopewell’s Team Hoffman, which entered as the No. 1 seed, defeated Riverside/Team Linville, 17-7. However, Hopewell’s Team Dunn’s season is over following a 9-2 loss to New Brighton’s Team Rosalinds.
HOPEWELL’S TEAM DUNN VS. NEW BRIGHTON/ROSALINDS
Team Dunn trailed 3-1 heading to the bottom of the 4th inning when New Brighton plated 5 runs to put the game away.
Team Dunn’s offense had a hard time getting going as they picked up 7 hits and couldn’t really get anything going offensively. Noah Honess led the way with 2 hits, while Ryder Kostrick picked up their only extra base hit, a double.
All in all, it was a successful Pony League season for this group of kids.
HOPEWELL’S TEAM HOFFMAN VS. RIVERSIDE/LINVILLE
Team Hoffman entered last night with the pressure of being the team to beat in this year’s playoffs after finishing the regular season with zero losses.
Early in this game vs. Riverside things looked a little hairy as Riverside jumped ahead to a 6-1 lead in the 3rd inning.
However, this team didn’t panic and the overall talent on this talent eventually displayed itself as they ran away with a 17-7 win (6 innings).
After following behind by 5 runs in the top of the 3rd inning, Hopewell responded with an 11-run bottom of the 3rd inning to completely flip the scrip on the game.
Team Hoffman pounded out 18 hits, as everyone in the lineup collected at least one base hit. However, two players really stood out in last night’ win- Tyler Hoffman and Liam Rankin.
Rankin was brought in to pitch with his team trailing 4-1 and Riverside had the bases loaded with 1 out. Rankin was able to pitch his way out of that jam, only allowing 2 runs (1 unearned) as he struck out 2 batters.
That kept the game within striking distance for the Vikings bats as they trailed only 6-1.
Rankin went on to pitch 3 innings, allowing 3 hits, 1 earned run and striking out 6 batters.
Offensively, Hoffman was the big bat going 4-for-5 with 6 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Hoffman came close to batting for the cycle as he picked up a double, triple and 2 singles.
It wasn’t just Hoffman as Nico Yannessa went 3-for-3, Vin Smetana 2-for-4 with 3 runs, Connor Reed 2-for-2 with 4 runs, Kruz Krotec 2-for-3 with 2 runs and Channing Yesionek was 2-for-4 with 1 run.
RBI getters for the Vikings were Hoffman with 6, Krotec with 3, Yesionek with 2, Evan Vogel with 2 and Liam Rankin and Yannessa with 1 each.
The Hopewell batters picked up 8 extra base hits: Doubles- Reed, Yannessa, Krotec, Rhett Rankin, Hoffman; Triples- Hoffman and Smetana.
NEXT UP:
Hopewell will return to the field tonight as they’ll host Ambridge starting at 6 PM. The Bridgers advanced with an opening night 6-3 win over Blackhawk/Team DeChicko.
During the regular season, Hopewell defeated Ambridge, 10-6 but it won’t be easy as winning in the playoffs never is.
Best of luck Hopewell!
