He’s a lefthander. He bats leadoff and has such good speed that he shattered Robbinsville High’s single-season and career stolen base record.
So it stands to reason that Gavin Hopkins is a. . . .catcher?
A catcher?
“Before every game,” the RHS rising junior said, “I up to the umpire and introduce myself and say ‘Hello, my name is Gavin and I’m probably the first lefty catcher that bats leadoff that you’ll ever see.’”
It wasn’t supposed to be that way. But when starting backstop Chris Naperkoski tore his ACL during football season, the Ravens needed somebody behind the plate.
“Gavin actually caught in middle school so he a little experience but it’s been a while,” coach Mike Kinsella said. “It’s a bit different catching middle school baseball to catching varsity baseball with the teams we play.
“We tried to convert another seni or we thought could do it. Because we’re a small program we’re limited with catchers. We didn’t have any other options, we went to another kid in the preseason, him and Gavin both split time and we decided to go with Hopkins.”
Hopkins remembers catching for the Robbinsville Little League 12-year-old All-Star team that won the 2020 District 12 tournament. During that time he caught Tyler Bunnell, a Ravens rising senior and University of Pittsburgh commit.
“In Little League my dad coached all my teams and it was always that no one wanted to catch Tyler so my dad was like ‘You’re doing it,” Hopkins recalled. “I picked it back up this year. It took a little bit but once I got going it was just like clockwork.
Once again, the challenge was finding someone to handle the ultra-talented Bunnell.
“Tasking him with catching Tyler, he’s not an easy kid to catch,” Kinsella said. “He throws hard, he’s got a lot of movement on his pitches and those are the big games, the high pressure games that he pitches. Gavin did a good job.”
There were several factors that went into the decision, but mostly it was due to Hopkins pure athleticism. A three-letterman who played football, basketball and baseball (although he is dropping football after breaking his hand last fall), Hopkins showed enough raw skill to abandon his comfort zone.
“He’s a ridiculous athlete,” Kinsella said. “He can pitch a little bit too, which we may explore next year. He’s an outfielder by trade, and he’s a very good outfielder. He’s got speed plus an arm and he’s got a mentality of ‘Anything near I’m gonna go get.’”
Even at the expense of his older brother Grayson, who graduated last year.
“He was playing center and Gray was in left, and a taylor-made flyball went to left and Gavin ran over and caught it,” Kinsella said. “Gray was like ’What are you doing? Stay in your lane man.’ So he’s a good outfielder, but he made the ultimate sacrifice with Nap being out for the year. We didn’t want to do it. I don’t think he wanted to do it, but that’s just the kind of kid he is.”
Hopkins was not surprised that the coaches turned to him, considering his past experience.
“After the first couple scrimmages it was clear there’s a hole in our team,” he said. “I knew I was best fit for the job. I caught Tyler in little league, which honestly was harder back then because (mound to home plate) was so close and he was throwing hard even back then.
“I knew I had to step up. I’m the type of guy who would do whatever it takes for the team to win. I love those guys. I told coach I wanted to catch.”
Hopkins was, however, somewhat concerned that the hand he broke in football might be a problem.
“That made me nervous because that was my catching hand,” he said. “It took seven to eight weeks to recover and that was getting close to the start of the season. It was tough but it was good.”
Kinsella and assistant coach Greg Lerner worked with Hopkins as did Naperkoski, who Gavin said was the guy who made it possible to last beyond two games behind the plate.
“I can’t stress enough how much Chris Naperkoski helped me out,” Hopkins said. “He’s like a brother to me. He helped me develop my catching. He’s one of the best defensive catchers I’ve ever seen. It’s like an art, and I learned so much from him.”
But the learning took time, which the coaching staff knew it would.
“It wasn’t an idea situation,” Kinsella said. “We told him he was gonna struggle a little bit and that’s OK, the other guys would pick him up. He did a good job, for not catching a couple years. A lot of these catchers do private training and private lessons. For not doing that he did pretty well.”
There were growing pains, but not as bad as it could have been.
“It was just patience, and him being a natural athlete definitely helped speed that process up,” Kinsella continued. “We worked at it in practice but we had to be careful, he’s so valuable in the run game. He caught every inning of every game and ran for himself every time he got on base. It was a lot physically so we had to be careful how much we worked him in practice.”
Hopkins admitted he began to wear down as another successful Ravens season drew to a close. Robbinsville reached the sectional semifinals and finished 18-6-1, which is a lot of games to crouch for every pitch and also steal bases while hitting .371 and reaching 11 times apiece on walks and hit by pitches.
“Even though the numbers may not say it, it was a struggle,” Hopkins said. “Toward the back half of the year when you’re in the (batter’s) box, my legs were feeling it. It didn’t feel normal, it didn’t feel comfortable. I trust myself enough to go up there and be confident. It didn’t affect my base running. It just more affected my comfort in the box.
“When you get into the fifth and sixth innings of those long playoff games it’s a lot. And when it gets hotter outside it just works on your body a ton. I spent a lot of time in the training room. When you’re in the box and your legs start shaking because they’re so tired, it doesn’t make it easy. I worked through it.”
It was a credit to Hopkins that with all the focus he had to put on a new position, it did not affect his hitting. He had an impressive .522 on-base percentage and a .908 OPS, and has upped his career average to .346.
“He has tremendous bat control,” Kinsella said. “He doesn’t strike out a lot. With his speed, when he puts the ball in play it puts tremendous pressure on defenses to make plays. He has a little power too. Game-wise it hasn’t shown up, but ultimately it’s tremendous bat control, and a very good eye.
“He works a lot of counts. He gets hit a lot. He set the record for hit by pitches for us. Mentality wise he wants to be on the plate. I love that approach, it’s like an old-school approach. He loves it. I didn’t teach him that, he learned that from a young age.”
Growing up, Hopkins would watch Grayson and sister Brynn, a former Ravens softball standout, when they would hit.
“That just led me to develop good hand-eye coordination,” he said. “I practice a lot and I work on my bat control. I’ve been playing baseball my whole life and my bat control has been good ever since I was a kid.”
His next step is to develop the power that Kinsella is waiting to see.
“I’ve been working on that, just gaining as much power and pop as I can,” he said. “I’ve been trying to eat more, lift more. Going into this season I was expecting to have a good power year at the plate. Once catching was introduced it kind of went out the door. That impacted it a little bit. I think next year I’m gonna get bigger, stronger, hopefully grow a little more.”
Whether he catches next year remains to be seen, as Kinsella calls Hopkins “a Swiss army knife for us. He’ll play wherever we need him to play and he’ll be a plus with whatever we need him to do.”
Whatever happens next year, Hopkins will always look back on this season with a lot of gratification in how he grinded it out.
“There were some times where I had to dig deep this year,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way I handled the situation. No matter what position I’m playing I’m giving 110 percent of what I have. Toward the end of the year it felt my 110 percent was my normal 35 percent. I left all my chips on the table and did whatever I could for the team.”
Gavin Hopkins prepares to catch a low pitch. (Photo by Juulie Lawandy.),
