The Raiders baseball Team is on a seven game winning streak and they currently sit atop the Metro East Conference at 12-4 overall, 11-3 in conference play after defeating the former MEC leader, Mahtomedi, for the second time this season on Monday afternoon for Senior Night. Before Mahtomedi, they went to Tartan a demolished them 14-2, Simley also fell victim to the Raiders bats when Hastings won 9-1 and the first game of the week was South St. Paul, a 9-4 win.
The biggest game of the week came on Monday against Mahtomedi. It was senior night and Hastings will be losing 19 players to graduation this year. There are a lot of really great, selfless young men on this team and as they took the field, it was clear there is going to be a lot of big shoes to fill. By the time all 19 seniors were announced, there were three Raiders left on the bench, two juniors and a sophomore.
Mahtomedi put a little scare into the Raiders when the leadoff hitter drove the ball over the right center fence for a home run to start the game. Hastings had two chances to tie the game with a runner on third base in the first and second innings, but they were not able to capitalize. The Zephyrs added one more in the Third to go up 2-0.
Trailing 2-0 against the conference leading team would deflate most benches, but not Hastings. They roared back in the third inning to go up 3-2. Gavin Radant hit a single and Sawyer Tjomsland walked after a long at bat. A questionable play by the Mahtomedi centerfielder on a triple by Alex Hendrickson caused a bit of a ruckus with the umpire crew and the triple was upheld. The next batter, Evan Nelson hit a line drive single scoring Hendrickson and giving the Raiders the 3-2 lead.
Hastings added three in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead 6-2 and Mahtomedi added one in the seventh, but it was not enough and the Raiders won 6-3 to take sole possession of first place in the Metro East Conference.
Looking at the section standings, Hastings was listed as third overall behind Two Rivers and Burnsville. The sections standings are not easy to sort through without all games being reported, and as of Monday night, none of the Monday games had been tallied yet. The section standings site uses the Quality Results Formula for ranking the teams. It is a complicated formula that takes a variety of factors into consideration. Hastings trails first place Two Rivers by less than 10 points and second place Burnsville by four.
Hastings has four more regular season games left for 2024 and all are away games. May 15, they head to St. Thomas Academy, May 17, they head to Hill-Murray and that will end their conference schedule. If they want to hold on to the top spot in the MEC, they will have to take down two teams that have already beaten them once each this season. St. Thomas won 6-1 and Hill-Murray won 3-0 previously.
The last two non-conference games are Lakeville South on May 20 and Eastview on May 21. All four games are scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. start.