Tyler Kobil throws a pitch during an 8-4 extra-innings loss to Ewing at home on April 13. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
The Hopewell Valley Central High School baseball team played 37 innings in four games between April 13 and April 18, but you can trust them when they say it was a labor of love.
After starting the season 5-0, Hopewell lost 8-4 to Ewing in eight innings, followed by an even more heart-wrenching loss to Allentown, 4-3 in 14 innings. The squad won its next effort against Hightstown 7-3 in the standard seven innings, but its 9-1 win over Pennington the next day was another matchup that ended in extras.
That’s all part of why the Bulldogs play the game, said junior shortstop Will Karp.
“It’s 14 innings of fun,” he said. “We’re here because we like baseball. We’re not here to get out of here in five innings. We’re here to play baseball. It’s tiring. A lot of guys are sore, arms are hurting, but it’s life. It’s good.”
Senior pitcher Joe Jenkins agreed.
“These games are tough, but you have to have a short memort, and we do,” he said. “We’re all happy to be here. None of us don’t want to be here. That’s why we try out for the team. We all know that everyone out here is going to give it 100 percent.”
Even if games go twice as long as they should.
Head coach Ken Harrison added that those long games were a positive learning experience for the team’s many underclassmen.
“It was an outstanding experience for the players to be associated with [the Allentown loss], especially the first-year-varsity players,” he said. “Even though we came out on the wrong end, it’s still a great experience to learn from and get a feel for big games.”
Hopewell is 7-2 through the first half of the season, and while the team averages just over six runs a game—due in part to two 11-run outings at the beginning of the season—Harrison said the first nine games have been all about pitching. There was some uncertainty surrounding the rotation at the end of last season after starting pitchers Andrew Graziano, Ian Livernoche, Ben Ngu, and Mike O’Donnell all graduated, but this year’s batch put an end to that pretty quickly.
Starters Jenkins, Greg Gasparro and Tyler Kobil have logged a combined 53 innings, and seniors Jenkins (1.89) and Kobil (2.64) have each kept their ERAs below 3.00. Gasparro, a junior whose primary role last year was as closer, tossed a five-inning no-hitter in an 11-1 win over 6-1 Notre Dame on April 8 and was 15th in the state in strikeouts with 31 as of April 20.
“It’s just throwing fastballs wherever I can and off-speeds when I need them,” Gasparro said. “That’s really it. Our pitching’s been tremendous, no matter who is in the game.”
Jenkins, who had a strong summer in Legion ball, said he came into the season already confident and ready to pitch.
“That’s why I feel like I can just put the ball where I want at any given time,” he said. “That’s just a great feeling.”
Part of that confidence comes from the fielders behind him, he added.
“It’s very nice to know that if a ball’s hit, I’m about 100 percent sure that somebody’s going to make a play, someone’s going to give me their best effort,” he said. “That’s all I can really ask for. A pitcher is only as good as his fielders.”
Gasparro has been just as good at the plate as he has been on the mound. As of April 20, he was hitting .310 with two extra base hits and 12 runs scored. But Harrison said Gasparro’s nine walks have been among his most important contributions, getting him on base before catcher Scotty Bradley, whose six RBI and four XBH have helped the team in some clutch situations. He notched three RBI off of a home run and a double in the season opener against West Windsor North.
Sophomore Cameron Cane has also had a solid first half, leading the team with a .320 average, while each of Ben Schragger, Mike Gies, and Karp’s 10 RBI amount to more than a third of the team’s total. Sam Margulis has two key two-out RBI on the year.
It’s been a total team effort, said Karp.
“No one’s having an off year,” he said. “We’re a pretty talented team. We feel like we’re pretty good, like we can win every game. Both of our back-to-back losses, we felt like we should have won both games, and we could have.”
Heading into the second half, Harrison stresses patience at the plate during practices and in games, especially after the two losses that could have gone the other way if Bulldogs hitters had resisted swinging at a few high pitch es and curveballs in the dirt. Swinging at those pitches does nothing but help the opposing pitcher out, he said.
“We told the guys, ‘Your swing is only as good as the pitch you swing at,’” he said. “If you’re swinging at bad pitches, your swings are going to be bad.”
The team struck out 12 times against Ewing, and Karp said many of them came on pitches that were out of the zone.
“You can’t do anything with them,” he said. “Really, the plate discipline is putting good at-bats together because the better pitches you get, the better swings you can put on them. It’s a focus thing.”
Once Hopewell’s hitting catches up to its pitching, Harrison said the squad will be tough to beat—and it’s already proven to be a problem for several Colonial Valley Conference teams.
The Bulldogs hope to capture their first-ever Mercer County title, as well as another deep state tournament run.
“This team has a lot of great players,” Jenkins said. “We have a lot of potential. A lot of great pitchers and a lot of great hitters. I see no reason why that isn’t in the realm of possibility.”
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