By Bruce Karnick

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New Raider Head Coach Ryan Stoffel has had a lot of firsts so far this season first practice, first lineup, first reschedule, and first win. Yet, he hasn’t had his first practice on a baseball field. With all the moisture this last week, Grossman Field at the high school, Schaffer Field at the middle school and Veterans Park are still too wet to use. That means the team has either practiced indoors in the fieldhouse or on the turf at Todd Field.

Coach Stoffel was not the only one with firsts. His son Connor got his first start on the mound of the season.

“It felt good,” Connor said with a smile. “I was a little nervous coming in playing last year's runner up at state so I was nervous. I was pretty impressed with our guys. We hit the ball well. We had 11 hits and only gave up one run.”

That one run came in the bottom of the first when Park tied the game. Hastings then took the lead for good in the next half inning, scoring two in the top of the second. Hastings added two in the fourth to go up 5-1 and then two more in the top of the seventh to take the 7-1 lead.

“The defense was big,” added Connor talking about the play behind him. “Zero errors in the first game is huge and the guys were behind me, especially in the fourth inning. They really picked me up.”

The Raiders as a team had timely hitting up and down the order according to the coaches and the team played well together.

“Connor got us off great with a great start and battled out of a jam in the third and then Gavin (Odman) came in and battled hard. We had timely hitting by everybody. It was just it was awesome,” added Coach Stoffel.

The game against Park was not only a huge win for the Raiders to start the season, it also is the first section win. It was also the first varsity action for nine of the 13 guys that played.

Odman came in for relief to pitch a scoreless three innings to end the game and earn his first Varsity save. Park’s head coach was complimentary of the Raiders pitching and how they changed up the speed just enough to keep the hitters of balance.

Key stats for the game: Jackson Schaffer went 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI’s, Mitch Iliff knocked in two and Eddie Peine drove one in. As a team, the Raiders were .367 at the plate with 11 hits, seven runs scored, four extra base hits, six stolen bases, nine strikeouts and four walks in 37 plate appearances leaving nine runners on base.

Other offensive standouts. Odman 1-for-2 at the plate, Tanner Anselment 2-for-4 and Stoffel 2-for-3 Runs scored: Schaffer scored twice, Stoffel, Peine, Iliff, Carson Thuet, John Teigland each scored once.

Defensively, Hastings played clean with no errors allowing only one run on five hits. Stoffel logged one strikeout with five walks and one earned run in four innings pitched. Odman sat two batters via strikeouts, walked two and allowed no runs in three innings pitched. Hastings will host South St. Paul on April 14 at 4:30 then travel to Simley on Monday to take on the Spartans.

Photo by Bruce Karnick

Photo by Bruce Karnick

Connor Stoffel held park to one run in his first four innings of the season Saturday, earning the Raiders their first win of the season.