Mike Vukovcan HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP-Despite turning in one of their best hitting performances of the season, the Hopewell Colt League baseball team couldn’t get past Riverside.
Unfortunately, the Vikings ran into a team that hit as well as them and made a few less errors. Bottom line, Riverside defeated Hopewell, 14-9 in an entertaining game.
Despite the loss, their were definitely some bright spots for Hopewell.
Vikings sophomore Jayvion Lindsey was the best player on the field both with his bat and his glove. Lindsey plays a smooth center field and if a ball comes his way, more times than naught, Lindsey is coming up with the catch. Jayvion displayed that on Thursday night.
At the plate, Lindsey smashed 3 hits, including a double and reached base 3 times and scored 4 runs.
Two other Vikings that was seeing the ball well were seniors James Gill and Payton Korker. Gill went 2-for-4 with a double and 4 RBI. One of the at-bats in which he didn’t reach base, Gill drove it center field where the Riverside defender made a nice catch. Batting from the cleanup spot, Korker was productive going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI.
Junior Aidan Erickson got the start on the mound for Hopewell and turned in a solid performance. Erickson gutted out 5 innings, allowing 5 hits, 7 runs (0 earned runs), 2 walks and struck out 6 batters. This was a good Riverside hitting team with everyone in the lineup being able to put the ball in play.
As mentioned earlier, this was an entertaining game with both teams competing hard for seven innings.
Hopewell took an early 1-0 lead, before Riverside scored the next 6 runs to take 5 run lead. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Hopewell rallied to score 5 runs to tie the game at 6-all. In the top of the 5th, Riverside scored a run to go back ahead 7-6 but the Vikings responded with 2 of their own to jump back in front 8-7. To their credit, Riverside immediately responded with 6 in the top of the 6th inning to ice the game.
Hopewell has the weekend off before they return to the field on Tuesday to host Blackhawk. First pitch is set for 6 PM.
