Camden Hoth

WEST MIFFLIN– It hasn’t been an easy start to the 2025 season for the Hopewell Vikings Freshman baseball team.

Taking on programs such as Seneca Valley and North Allegheny with a young roster isn’t ideal but this team kept the proper mindset, didn’t complain or lose interest, instead they just kept working knowing that their time would come.

That day was today as they made the long bus ride to West Mifflin to play a double-header. At the end of the long day, Hopewell came away with a double-header sweep, winning by the scores of 7-0 and 10-9.

The story line for both victories was outstanding pitching by Andrew Arzberger in Game One and Owen Ackerman in Game Two.

GAME ONE RECAP:
*After pitching well against North Allegheny in his last outing, Arzberger followed that up with a dominating performance this afternoon. The left-hander pitched a 1-hit shutout, allowing just 2 walks and striking out 8 batters.

The key today for Andrew was his ability to work ahead in the count and seemingly having the West Mifflin hitters in 1-2 or 0-2 counts all game long. In fact, Arzberger struck out 7 of the first 9 hitters that he faced.

Hopewell’s Andrew Arzberger

In the top of the first inning, Hopewell looked as though they’d take an early lead, but West Mifflin escaped without giving up a run. With 1 out, Josh Gill and Arzberger had back-to-back singles. Next up, Luke Vukovcan smoked a line drive that looked like it would go for a double but the West Mifflin 3rd baseman was in perfect position and snagged the ball before it went up the left field line. Cam Hoth followed that with a single, but Hopewell stranded the bases loaded.

Hopewell got on the scoreboard in the top of the 3rd with their biggest inning of the season. Gunner Reese led off the inning with a hard single to center field. Then with 2 on and 1 out, Gill collected his second hit of the game to load the bases for Arzberger, who promptly delivered an RBI single to left field, which scored Reese. Hopewell led 1-0.

Next up, Vukovcan drew a bases loaded walk to bring in Ryan Gaguzis, Hopewell led 2-0. With the score 3-0 and runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, Ethan Adams grounded out to second base, which scored Arzberger, Hopewell led 4-0. The final run of the inning came in as Vukovcan, timed things up perfectly and stole home.

Hopewell’s Luke Vukovcan

After getting staked to a 5-0 lead, Arzberger came out in the bottom of the third inning and set West Mifflin down 1-2-3, two courtesy of strikeouts and the final out on a grounder to Hoth at 3rd base.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Arzberger struck out the 1st batter. Then after issuing a walk, Andrew got the next two batters on a fly ball to Gaguzis in left field and the final out on grounder back to the mound.

The Hopewell offense added two more runs in the top of the fifth innings. After 2 outs, Gaguzis and Gill drew back-to-back walks and after a double-steal, they scored on a 2-run single to center field by Arzberger. Hopewell led 7-0.

Hopewell’s Ryan Gaguzis

West Mifflin couldn’t do anything in their final at-bats as the first batter grounded out to Covalt at shortstop, the second out was a ground ball back to Arzberger at the pitcher’s mound and the game ended on a line drive to Reed Budavich at first base.

FINAL SCORE: HOPEWELL 7 WEST MIFFLIN 0

After the game, Vikings Sports Now spoke to Hopewell coach Kaden Vandevert about the Vikings first win of the season.

GAME TWO RECAP:
*The second game was much different than the first one as Hopewell had to battle the entire game to hold onto a 10-9 decision. Credit West Mifflin for responding after Hopewell took a 4-0 lead in the first inning by scoring 7 runs in the next two innings to take a 7-5.

However, Hopewell didn’t blink as they would go on to score 5 runs in their next three innings to regain the lead, which in the end was enough for the win.

Kudos to Owen Ackerman who entered the game in the second inning and finished things out for Hopewell. Keep in mind, this was Ackerman’s first outing of the season. Owen ended up going 4 innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks and striking out 4 batters.

Ackerman entered the game with the bases loaded and ended up only giving up 2 runs, which was huge. West Mifflin was threatening for more with a runner at third base and 2 outs, but Ackerman induced a ground ball to Jackson Yurcina at second base to end the frame. West Mifflin led 7-5.

Hopewell’s Jackson Yurcina

Hopewell promptly tied the game up in the top of the 3rd inning. Josh Gill led off with a single to right field. Then with 1 out, Luke Vukovcan drew another walk to put two runners on. After a double steal, Gill would come home on a passed ball to cut West Mifflin’s lead down to 7-6. Then for the second time today, Vukovcan stole home. With Cam Hoth at 1st base and Vukovcan at 3rd, Hopewell sent both runners and the West Mifflin catcher threw down to second base, allowing Vukovcan to score easily. The score was now tied at 7-7.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Ackerman got the first out via a strikeout, the second on a fly out to Vukovcan at short and then the final batter popped up to Ackerman at the mound.

Hopewell regained the lead in the top of the 4th inning as Jackson Yurcina reached second base on an error by the West Mifflin center field and would eventually score on a passed ball. Hopewell led 8-7.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, after the leadoff West Mifflin hitter reached, Ackerman retired the next 3 hitters in order via a strikeout, a pop-up to Yurcina at second base and a foul up to Arzberger at first base.

In their final at-bats, Hopewell tacked up two important insurance runs that proved to be valuable.

With 1 out, Gill went the other way with a single to left and then Arzberger was hit by a pitch. Following a double-steal, Vukovcan drove in Gill with a sacrifice fly to left field, Hopewell led 9-7. The final scored courtesy an error by the West Mifflin 2nd baseman off a ground ball by Hoth. Hopewell led 10-7.

Hopewell’s Josh Gill

West Mifflin would score 2 runs, but Ackerman closed things out by striking out the final batter of the game.

Once again, Hopewell wins!!

No break for the Vikings as they’ll be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they host the Moon Tigers. Gametime from Hopewell High School is at 4 PM.

Hopewell Township- You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘the final score wasn’t indicative of how a team played’.

That was certainly the case of todays Middle School baseball game between Hopewell and North Allegheny.

Coming off of a 10- 0 (5 innings) loss last Monday to Seneca Valley, Hopewell was faced with the challenge of taking on North Allegheny, one of the biggest and most talent rich school districts in the WPIAL.

This was going to be a challenge for this young team but for 6 innings, the Vikings stood toe to toe with North Allegheny before things fell apart in the final inning.

My biggest take from this game was that Hopewell trailed just 6-4 going to the Top of the 6th inning and not that the final score was 18-4 (NA scored 10 runs in the final inning).

Five Positives From Today:

1. Andrew Arzberger’s Peformance: Arzberger got the start and all things considered, he pitched well. The left-hander went 3 innings, allowing 5 runs (4 earned runs), walked only 1 and struck out 4.

The key for Arzberger was keeping the ball down in the zone because when he did that, he was very effective. This start was definitely one to build on and be encouraged by.

At the plate, Arzberger was 3-for-3 , including an RBI double in the first inning that scored Luke Vukovcan and gave Hopewell a 1-0 lead.

2. Cam Hoth: For the second straight game, Hoth accounted well for himself on the mound. Hoth took over for Arzberger in the 4th inning and over the 4th, 5th and 6th innings allowed just 3 runs against a very good hitting team.

Hopewell’s Cam Hoth

Hoth came back out for the 7th inning and just ran out of gas. I’m going to remember his performance in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings and not the final frame. Nice job Cam.

3. Vikings At-The Plate: Hopewell was noticeably better at the plate today compared to the Seneca Valley game. In the season opener, they struck out 10 times in 5 innings. In 7 innings today, Hopewell cut that number down to 9.

Even in at least 4 of the at-bats that resulted in strike outs, the Hopewell batter battled and worked the pitcher to a full count.

Players like Ethan Adams, Ryan Gaguzis, Owen Ackerman and Reed Budavich had productive at-bats where they put the ball in play that resulted in a runner scoring or put down a sacrifice bunt when called upon to do it.

4. Ethan Adams in the Field: While the Vikings still need to clean up their defense, a definite bright spot was the defensive play of Adams at 3rd base. Adams made two putouts and caught two pop ups. Great effort in the field Ethan. Also want to mention that Reed Budavich made 3 catches in center field.

5. Luke Vukovcan at Catcher: I do my best not to mention my son in stories but Luke did a solid job behind the plate. He did a good job keeping things in front of him and his throws down to second were impressive. In fact, Luke threw out a North Allegheny runner trying to steal second in the 3rd inning and came close to throwing out a second one.

As I’ve written a few different times, this season will not be about wins and losses and instead will be all about individual development of the players. This team showed nice growth from game one to game two.

Should also point out that North Allegheny’s 9th game of the season compared to just two for Hopewell.

This Freshman team has a few days off before returning to action next Tuesday at Pine-Richland.

Arzberger and Ackerman Lead Hopewell Freshman Team to Doubleheader Sweep of West Mifflin

Despite Score, Hopewell Freshman Shows Big Improvement