By Bruce Karnick

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Minnesota has Hockey Day MN, a day where all levels of Hockey celebrate the game they love across the state of Minnesota, from the smallest of skaters to the MN Wild. Hastings participates in hockey day and with the crossover of athletes and coaches and the fact that HYAA is celebrating 40 years this year, they decided to create “Softball Day Hastings.”

Softball Day Hastings on Saturday, May 14 was a huge success. The day started at 7:30 a.m. with the U8 Blue and U10 White team kicking things off, and the high school varsity concluded the day under the lights with their senior night festivities.

The Hastings teams that played were: U8 Blue, U10 White, U10 Yellow, U10 Blue, U12 White, U12 Yellow, U12 Blue, U14 Blue, HHS Raiders Junior Varsity and HHS Raiders Varsity. In all, over 220 female athletes participated in the days events.

The community support was awesome to witness. At least 100 people were out watching each game. By the time the varsity game started, there were at least 300 people in attendance including a large contingency of students outside the centerfield fence.

HCTV 14 and KDWA broadcast each game on field one from the start to finish, nine games total. Addison Seleski and Lauren Muhl announced all the youth games and yours truly announced the JV and High School Games. Dozens of volunteers make the event possible. HYAA Travelling Softball Director John Thurmes along with board members Angie Strain and Cindy Lyon coordinated the events of the day and the volunteers to put on a great day celebrating softball. They even scheduled a variety of people to throw out ceremonial first pitches throughout the day. Saturday was truly an exciting community event and watching the girls at all levels be treated like professional players, with announcement of their names each at bat and walkup music added to the excitement.

Fynnlee Boomgaarden scores on a wild pitch during the first game of the day for Softball Day Hastings. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Lauren Muhl and Addison Seleski announced most of the day for the youth games giving the younger girls a little boost for their games. Photo by Bruce Karnick