Baseball: Hopewell Valley Central finds a gem in James Harrity

By Andrew Atwal

For BucksLocalSports.com

This spring, the Hopewell Valley Bulldogs baseball team featured a pitching staff composed of mainly seniors. As the season progressed, however, the ‘Dawgs would find their rotation anchored by a junior — Jimmy Harrity.

Harrity quickly developed into Hopewell’s number-one starting pitcher, leading the team in innings pitched (51), strikeouts (45), and wins (9).

The 11th-grader will have to be even better next year because the Bulldogs lose some of their key pitchers, including Alex Mottle, Brian Miller, Travis Gerstacker and Ben Meer, to graduation.

For Hopewell coach Ken Harrison, Harrity exceeded his expectations.

“After the JV season ended last year, we had a meeting with the players and he was one of the guys who we expected to come onto the varsity team and pitch this season,” Coach Harrison said. “We didn’t know how well he would do, but we didn’t think he would go undefeated.”

Harrison went on to say that Harrity became Hopewell’s number one pitcher by season’s end, and became that pitcher that was going to go out and win on a consistent basis.

“For him to go undefeated and pitch against the quality of teams he did, it was a great surprise and was great for our ballclub.”

Going into next season, Harrison expects Harrity to be the Bulldogs’ number one pitcher.

“Next year, he’s not going to be under-the-radar anymore, so he is just going to have to come out next season and throw that much better.”

Harrity, however, still needs to work on his secondary pitches in order to become that much more effective.

“He throws a mid-80s fastball, a curveball, and a changeup. His fastball is his best pitch. His secondary pitches are getting better, and once he can throw those pitches even better, he will be even more difficult for other teams to beat.”

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