The first round of high school baseball games have been played, which technically means spring has arrived. Unfortunately, to make that happen, the Raiders had to play their season opener in River Falls, WI. Hastings played host to the Woodbury Royals at First National Bank of River Falls Field on Friday April 7th at noon.

The two teams needed to show up early to shovel the snow off some areas of the turf field for the game to take place. There was still plenty of snow in the stands and dugouts, but they managed to get the game in. Conference opponent Tartan also played in River Falls after the Raiders game was completed, perhaps it is time that someone in the Metro East Conference invests in a turf field for the boys to play at locally.

“The turf field over here in River Falls is great, they’ve done a great job the last couple of years here, so we made sure to get our game scheduled early. We knew we would be able to play this one because of the turf. It is awesome and the kids enjoyed it. It is too bad the atmosphere could have been a little better, but there was snow up in the bleachers still, but our fans made the best of it,” explained Head Coach Ryan Stoffel.

Stoffel was spot on in his assessment of the atmosphere, the cooler temps with snow on the ground likely limited the crowd, but so did the 35-minute drive for a home game.

The Raiders kicked the season off with Gavin Odman on the mound.

“I was a little nervous out there, I’m not going to lie,” Odman said after the first inning was over.

Woodbury took an early 1-0 lead off Odman, but a lead-off triple by Eddie Peine allowed him to score later in the inning to tie the game at one.

The Royals then scored four more in the second to take the lead for good. Hastings managed to cut into the royals 5-1 lead, scoring two of their own in the second, but that is where the offensive production stalled.

The early season jitters were not helped by the 40-degree temps to start the game. Odman allowed four earned runs in two innings with two walks and one strikeout.

“I thought we started off great. Gavin, he just didn't have his stuff. That happens with a pitcher from time to time, but there is nothing to be worried about,” added Stoffel.

The plan for the day was to only allow the pitchers to go a few innings as part of a ramp up for the start of the season. Odman was replaced by Aaron Vandehoef who went two thirds of an inning. Vandehoef gave up four runs, three of them earned, walking four and striking out one.

Sophomore Matt Sherry relieved Vandehoef and he had the best pitching performance of the day for the Raiders. Sherry fanned five batters, walked one and allowed only one earned run in two and two thirds’ innings. Mark DeNoyer finished the game on the mound allowing no runs and striking out two.

Offense for the Raiders was a bit slim for the season opener, Peine and Tanner Anselment each had two hits while Evan Nelson and Jack Seleski each had one. Peine had two RBIs and Anselment had the other scoring Peine in the first inning.

There was a lot of hype surrounding the team this year with the potential of a lot of the underclassmen adding depth and skill to the team that graduated several key players. It was clear the team expected to win. The loss was not only a disappointment for them, but it looked like it was a shock. Hopefully it is a wakeup call.

“That is exactly what I told them. I said, to be honest with you, I know you may not want to hear it, but I like to be honest with you. I like to be honest with all my players, I said I think that was what we needed. I think there is a lot of hype regarding this ballclub, and we got dealt a dose of reality and some adversity early. Now we can bury the bullseye from the very early preseason rankings, and we can mind our own business and go play ball,” Stoffel said.

“You know, a lot of the time, these senior guys come in and they have a lot of expectations for themselves, they think they need to be ‘the guy’ and it just didn’t go that way today. It is tough as a pitcher when 80 percent of the game you are pitching with a 2-0 pitch count. As a hitter, you love 2-0 because you know a strike is coming and that is exactly what they did. We also had some mental errors in the field, some throwing errors and letting them run. Maybe it was the first game jitters, but we will be fine,” Stoffel added.

The Raiders have two games scheduled for this week, both at home. The issue is, Grossman Field is still pretty squishy, even with the warmer temperatures. Wednesday, April 12th is scheduled against North St. Paul and Friday, April 14th is scheduled to be against Two Rivers. If the field is not ready, they will explore playing at their opponent’s field if that is a better option, otherwise the games will be rescheduled, but that brings a list of other challenges. Keep an eye on our social media for last minute changes to the schedule.4/