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Hopewell Junior High Baseball

Hopewell HS Baseball

Planning for Hopewell High School, JV, Middle School Year End Picnic

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

Man goes time go by quick! Believe it or not, we’re coming to the end of another baseball season in Hopewell.

The JV and Middle School seasons will be wrapping up in two weeks and hopefully the varsity team will be playing for ALOT LONGER as they hope to qualify and then advance in the WPIAL and hopefully PIAA playoffs.

With things wrapping up, the Hopewell Baseball Boosters and coaching staffs want to let all families of players about this year’s end of season picnic.

It will take place on May 9th at 3 PM at the Hopewell Community Park, Pavilion #3.

These picnics are always a good time as families and players get together formally for the final time to have fun getting together and recognizing the team and coaches for all of their accomplishments.

Here’s something very important that the program is asking of all families. If you plan on attending, please fill out the form link below, which will allow them to plan accordingly in order to have an idea of how many people to plan for.

They’re asking you to please do this by this coming Monday, April 27th.

They’re looking forward to wrapping up the season the right way with our Hopewell Baseball family. See you there.
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Hopewell Junior High Baseball

Hopewell JH Baseball Coach B.J. Rankin Previews Upcoming Season

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 5 minutes read

With the weather SLOWLY warming up and improving that can only mean one thing, baseball season is right around the corner.

In fact, the Hopewell HS and JV programs are scheduled to start play this coming Tuesday with the varsity having a scrimmage at Peters Township HS while the JV team will host Peters Township. Of course, whether those games will be able to be played will be dictated by Mother Nature and if the fields are playable.

Later on, this month, the Hopewell Junior High baseball program will also officially start play with B.J. Rankin returning as head coach for his second season.

Because of roster size, the junior high will field two teams a Blue and a Gold team. The Blue team, which Rankin will coach, will be taking on predominantly other 9th grade programs from across WPIAL, while the Gold team will be playing more middle school teams.

One thing to keep in mind is that these two teams will have a mix of both 7th and 8th grade players on it. The Blue team won’t just be filled with 8th grade players; 7th graders will have the opportunity to earn a spot on this team. That will all be determined by Rankin and his coaching staff following player evaluation.

As we being to ramp up our coverage of Hopewell baseball, Vikings Sports Now had the chance to speak with Coach Rankin about this year’s team and also about how he feels entering his 2nd season in charge of Hopewell’s junior high baseball program.

After years of being a part of Hopewell’s youth baseball program, Rankin accepted the offer from HS coach Morgan Singletary to be head coach of the junior high program.

As I stated last year, this was a grand slam hire for a number of reasons: 1) Rankin’s knowledge of the game 2) his coaching style and ability to get his message across 3) the type of person Rankin is and the values he possesses and ability to interact and instruct his players.

Despite having coached for many years, last year was different for Rankin for many reasons and he believes he learned many things that will carry over to this year.

“I know the ropes and understand the program a little better,” Rankin told VSN. “Last year was a learning curve for me as I was trying to get these kids ready for high school and I got to learn a long with them. I’m more comfortable this year, which will help things. It also helps that I have roughly 16,17 kids back from last year who can help reinforce certain behaviors, standards and expectations with the younger group. Overall, I think things are going well.”

Hopewell’s Kruz Krotec

Hopewell had to play mostly against older competition last season, which will be the case again in 2026. Considering some of the quality programs they’ll be facing, it’ll be a challenge, but Rankin believes because of development, his players will be better equipped to compete.

At this level, I was curious if seeing player development was the biggest priority and not basing success solely on wins and losses.

“It’s about both. Across the board, for both our 7th and 8th graders, we want to see each kid develop and improve. The team that will predominantly be playing the other freshman teams, I want them to be confident, feel like they can compete and ultimately, we’re going to be trying to win games. Last year was challenging for the 7th graders, they didn’t back down, they weren’t afraid of the higher competition, sometimes two classes above them. I feel like this year, we’ll be more equipped for success against the older teams.”

Hopewell’s Vin Smetana

The other thing to keep in mind is that the varsity team will be graduating 7 players following the 2026 season. That means that opportunities will be available next season for the 8th graders, which is something Rankin is aware of.

“I believe that we have a very talented group at both grade levels and believe that we’ll have kids that will be equipped to contribute at the high school level either next year or the year after,” Rankin told VSN. “We’re going to give them every opportunity to get better and compete and that goes for the 7th graders as well. I really believe that between our two grade levels, 7th and 8th grade, it’s an extremely talented group. They’re also a very close-knit group as a lot of them have been playing sports together for a while.”

Looking ahead, something very encouraging for the Hopewell baseball program as a whole is the roster size at the junior high level. Regardless of any sport you’re talking about, the more players in the program gives coaches more options to choose from in order to field their teams.

Hopewell’s Ryder Kostrick

“The numbers that we have in our program right now is unique. I don’t believe we’ve had 24 players on a junior high team in a while. Our biggest goal is player improvement and development, and I believe that every one of our kids has improved individually from a year ago. That’s what you want to see as a coach, to see kids progress, to see them improve which gives them confidence. When you’re improving and confident, I believe that allows you to perform in a game.”

In this conversation with Coach Rankin, I didn’t ask him about individual players as it’s probably a bit too early for that. However, from his voluntary off-season workouts and from the opening of official practices, I was curious as to what he believes could be the strength of this year’s team.

“One of the biggest challenges for us last year was pitching,” said Rankin. “As it was last year, one of the biggest challenges for the 7th graders this year will be going from a 46-foot mound, sometimes 50-foot mound to a 60-foot mound. That’s a huge jump.”

Hopewell’s Tyler Hoffman

“We’ve been throwing from the pen for the last few weeks and we look good. I’m excited for that and I believe that’s what will give us the opportunity to compete. Being able to fill up the strike zone, making the other team put the ball in play and not giving away free bases. Fundamentally, that’s where it starts. But we’ve been doing a lot of batting practice, we’re making a lot of good contact, but pitching is going to be the key this year.”

VIKINGS SPORTS NOW’S HOPEWELL JUNIOR HIGH (7TH/8TH GRADE) PLAYERS TO WATCH:

8th Graders:

Tyler Hoffman

Ryder Kostrick

Vinny Smetana

Connor Reed

Nico Yannessa 

Channing Yesionek

Noah Honess

Liam Rankin

 

7th Graders:

Kruz Krotec 

Wade Enders

Henry Dunn

Austin Gallagher 

Rhett Rankin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hopewell HS BaseballHopewell HS SoftballHopewell Junior High BaseballHopewell Junior High Softball

Weather Could Make Things Tough for Hopewell Baseball and Softball Teams

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 1 minutes read

This is the time of the year that’s tough if you’re a baseball or softball player in Western Pennsylvania.

Teams have been practicing for months in anticipation of playing games, but everyone could be in a hold pattern as Mother Nature will dictate whether or not these games will be played.

Unfortunately, with the weather we’ve experienced over the last 48 hours and what’s in the forecast, a lot of games are likely to be postponed. With the amount of rain that’s fallen and is predicted to be coming, the fields aren’t likely to be able to hold up and could be unplayable.

Hopewell High School softball games were postponed on Thursday and Friday, as well as the Junior High Softball game and Middle School Baseball games on Friday.

As everyone realizes, we received a bunch more rain overnight which did a number on all of the fields in Hopewell.

Here’s a look at the condition of the field as of this afternoon and a look at the baseball and softball schedules for this upcoming week.


The question is will the fields be able to dry up in time in order to be playable?

Monday:
*Middle School Baseball at home vs. New Castle.

*High School Softball at Avonworth

*High School Baseball vs. North Catholic

*Junior High Softball at Central Valley

Tuesday:
*High School Baseball at North Catholic

*Junior High Softball at Montour

Wednesday:
*Middle School Baseball at home vs. Ambridge.

*High School Softball vs. Beaver Falls

Thursday: 
*High School Baseball vs. Montour

Friday:
*Middle School Baseball at South Side

*High School Softball at Mohawk

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Hopewell Junior High Baseball

Positives from Hopewell/West Allegheny Middle School Baseball Game

by Mike Vukovcan
written by Mike Vukovcan 3 minutes read

Sports is a learning experience and that’s definitely the case when you start competing at the junior high level.

Unlike in grade school sports where you’re playing kids your age and in nearby schools, junior high is completely different.

Not only do you start to play teams in bigger school districts, but in some cases, kids have to go up against kids that are older than they are.

That is certainly the case when playing baseball. The reason for that is that there is no real uniformity when it comes to baseball and different schools handle things in different ways. The main for that is simple- number of kids that play baseball.

In the bigger districts, there are enough kids to field a junior high team (7th and 8th graders), a 9th grade team or a JV team. However, that certainly is different from district to district.

When looking at Hopewell’s situation this year, the 7th grade numbers were extremely large, which led to the decision that the Junior High Team would be made up of just 7th graders, with the 8th graders playing with the 9th graders on the Freshman team.

Was this ideal, probably not, but it was done so that cuts didn’t have to be made, and more kids had the opportunity to be practice and play baseball.

The tough part about this is that on most games, the Hopewell teams would be going up against players older than they were from bigger districts such as North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, West Allegheny, Moon, Pine-Richland, Montour, etc.

This year is going to be a challenge for our coaches and athletes and while you always want to win and that’s the goal, it will be challenging to do so. That being said, the results be damn, the reality is that this year is going to be about personal development and learning to deal with adversity.

This will no doubt benefit them down the road.

With that being said, the Hopewell Middle School team traveled to West Allegheny yesterday and were on the losing end, 13-1. Regardless of the score and of the result, Vikings Sports Now will point out the positives that came from the game and won’t second guess coaches or make players look bad.

POSITIVE RESULTS FROM HOPEWELL/WEST ALLEGHENY GAME:
*Connor Reed and Channing Yesionek pitched and competed well. Give credit to West Allegheny who have a really good baseball program, their batters hit the gaps and ran the bases really well. That’s baseball. Reed threw 53 pitches and Yesionek threw 51 pitches, averaging 25 pitches per inning. Considering the opposition, that’s not bad. They will learn from this and both will get better.

*As I mentioned, everyone in West Allegheny’s lineup was capable of hitting the ball, so the Hopewell defenders were going to get tested.
-Ryder Kostrick made two above average catches in center field, one of which was a sprinting/diving one that he put his body on the line. Worthy of Top 10 Plays on Sports Center.

-As has been the case all season, Vin Smetana was solid at shortstop. He made two throws to first, but his highlight was the over the shoulder catch at the edge of the infield. Although Smetana made it look like it, it wasn’t an easy play.

-David Johnson made a great play at 2nd base for a putout.

-3rd baseman Noah Honess did an outstanding job of tracking down a pop foul in which he needed to run, what seemed like a mile to get. Noah also snagged a line drive over his head for an out, which would have been a double.

-Offensively, Hopewell put the ball in play 7 times and only struck out 3 times in their 15 at-bats. It should also be pointed out that the West Allegheny pitcher was throwing 70+ MPH. Unfortunately, when they made contact, most times it was right at the West Allegheny fielder. Smetana, Kostrick, Ty Hoffman and Reed all squared up balls, but the West A made the plays.

Although the results weren’t what they wanted, the Hopewell Middle School team represented themselves and the program well yesterday against a quality opponent.

These players will learn and will get better, there’s no doubt about that. Next up, a matchup tomorrow at home against Central Valley.

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