Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell 8-Year-Old All-Star team almost did it but ultimately came up just short.
Regardless of the final outcome, it was a tremendous day of baseball for the players on the team.
Established in 1986, family owned and serving the Beaver County community for over 40 years. Serving breakfast favorites and lunch specials.
In order to win the Ambridge All-Star Tournament, the Vikings would need to win 3 games on Sunday.
They started the day by defeating Moon 14-11, a team they lost to 13-4 on Saturday, Next up, the Vikings soundly defeated North Fayette 15-7. Then onto the championship game where they took on a very talented Ambridge team, that’s done plenty of winning over the last couple of seasons.
These two teams matched up last weekend in the Hopewell All-Star Tournament and the Bridgers got the best of them by the score of 15-5. Yesterday, Ambridge came out on top again, but it was much closer as Hopewell showed grit and plenty of improvement, ultimately losing by the score of 12-10.
Earlier on Sunday, Vikings Sports Now reported on the win over Moon. In case you missed it, here’s the recap.
Huge BounceBack Win for Hopewell 8-Year-Old All-Stars in Bracket Play
Highlights of Win over North Fayette:
This was the ultimate team win as the Vikings stockpiled an amazing 30 hits in this game. Consider this, seven players in the Hopewell lineup had 3 hits apiece, while one had 4! That’s production.
Hudson Lavia led the way with 4 hits, while Grayden McNally, Declan Rinaldi, Coleson Orie, Brody Tournay, August Arostegui, Mason Thumm and Cam Winiarski all collected 3 hits apiece. Trent Michael and Harper Lavia both had 2 hits apiece. Thumm picked up two doubles, while McNally had one.
In terms of RBI getters, Thumm led Hopewell with 4, while Rinaldi, Orie and Tournay each picked up 2 and McNally, Arostegui, Hudson Lavia, Winiarski and Obie DeCanio each had 1.
This was a relatively close game until the 4th inning and that’s when Hopewell’s bats exploded for 5 runs and they took a 12-3 lead.
FINAL SCORE: HOPEWELL 15 NORTH FAYETTE 7
Highlights of Championship Game vs. Ambridge:
To beat this Ambridge team, Hopewell was going to need to play a near perfect game and make plays on defense to limit big innings for the Bridgers offense.
While 30 hits like last game was too much to ask for 8-year-olds, Hopewell would need to be able to pound out hits.
Hopewell did the second thing as they out-hit Ambridge, 23-21. In terms of limit the big innings, they nearly did that, but Ambridge scored 6 runs in the 1st inning which was too much for Hopewell to overcome.
This was a tremendous championship game and Hopewell showed plenty of character by continuing to respond to the punches they were receiving from Ambridge.
After the Bridgers scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st, Hopewell responded with 4 runs of their own in the top of the second. Then after holding the Bridgers scoreless in the bottom of the 3rd, Hopewell tied the game at 9 as they put up 4 runs in the top of the 4th inning.
Ambridge then scored 1 in the bottom of the 4th and 2 in the bottom of the 5th to take a 3-run lead. Hopewell attempted to tie things up in the final inning and did score a run and had the tying runner at the plate but came up short.
Going inside the Hopewell box score- Orie, Harper Lavia and Tournay paced the team with 3 hits apiece. McNally, DeCanio, Thumm, Hudson Lavia, Trent Michael and Olton Eiler each picked up 2 hits apiece.
McNally drove in 3 runs for the Vikings, while Hudson Lavia picked up 2 and Michael, Tournay, Orie and Rinaldi all had one in the game.
Five Hopewell players had extra base hits as Michael clubbed a triple, while Tournay, Orie, Hudson Lavia and Winiarski each had a double.
FINAL SCORE: AMBRIDGE 12 HOPEWELL 10
This was the final All-Star Tournament this summer for this 8-year-old team as they finished with a winning record. Great job and progression with this group and the future certainly is bright.
2025 Hopewell 8-Year-Old All-Star Team
A shoutout to the coaches for the time and work they put in with this group- Ryan Rinaldi, Tyler Tournay, Jon Lavia and DJ Thumm.
