HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP- There was an unusual atmosphere Tuesday afternoon at Joe Colella Field as the Hopewell Vikings hosted the Riverside Panthers in their 2025 Home Opener.
Things were different because star pitcher Christian Lucarelli was getting the start for Riverside. Lucarelli, who’s already signed with Duke, garners national attention in the former of scouts. Major League Baseball scouts.
Yes, as the teams were warming up, a swarm of MLB Scouts from various teams showed up to watch Lucarelli pitch.
This was the case last season and will be the norm for the rest of his senior season. At the end of the baseball season, Lucarelli and his family have to decide whether he will attend Duke or turn professional, depending on which round he gets selected. Right now, there’s MLB Draft talk that he could get drafted as high as the second round.
Scouts, with their notebooks and radar guns in hand, were there to evaluate everything this talented right-hander did.
The players from Hopewell were well aware of who they were going up against and no doubt saw the number of people located either directly behind home plate or on top of the hill in attendance. I could only imagine what was going through their heads during pregame and every time they stepped into the batter’s box against him.
In the end, Lucarelli lived up to the hype as he pitched 4 innings, allowing just 1 hit, 0 runs, 4 walks and recording 9 of his 12 outs via strikeout. This will no doubt be the most challenging pitcher that Hopewell will face this season, as his fastball reached as high as 96 MPH. It wasn’t just the fastball as Lucarelli threw in a slider that was nasty and couple that with the fastball, made it very challenging.
Lucarelli’s control wasn’t what he wanted as early on; he struggled to find the strike zone but credit the Hopewell batters for being patient and recognizing that. But in the end, it was difficult for Hopewell and will be the case for most teams he plays this season, to truly square up a ball against this big right-hander and string together a bunch of hits.
The lone Hopewell hit of the day went to junior shortstop Drew Donovan. Charlie Smetana was able to draw 2 walks in his 3 at-bats.
The fact that Hopewell’s bats were held silent wasn’t a surprise but the fact that the Vikings allowed 14 runs was not expected.
But in the end, Hopewell has to turn the page, put that game in the rearview mirror and remember that it’s only one loss and it’s not a section game. So, while the outcome wasn’t what they wanted, a loss is a loss whether the score is 2-1 or 14-0.
Today is a new day, the team will gather at the field for another practice and get ready for their next game on Monday, which is a section game, at home against Beaver.
Tuesday was just one bad game in a long season, plenty of games left on the schedule.