The boys of summer had a wild last week. Monday, they defeated Mahtomedi 10-3, Tuesday they won a nailbiter against Simley 7-6 and Wednesday they lost a heartbreaker to St. Thomas Academy (STA) 2-1. They had two additional games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but the weather had other plans for them.

“We are doing everything we can to avoid scheduling doubleheaders, but it is looking like we might not have a choice,” explained head coach Ryan Stoffel. “The problem is twofold, field availability, many fields either are not ready, too wet or already have games scheduled, and umpire availability. There just are not enough umpires.”

Stoffel even reached out to the Hastings Hawks to see what the availability of Veterans Park is like for the next two weeks. A few of the dates that he needed to play were already booked for the Hawks. Veterans Park is the only park in town that can support a double header after school because of the lights. The Raiders do have a few games scheduled to be played out there this year and are looking to move another game or two out there if possible so more parents can make it to the games.

Starting the news week with the game against Simley, Hastings found themselves with an early 6-0 lead by the end of the third inning. In two innings, Mitch Iliff, Jack Seleski, Cade Kimmes and John Teigland all made it home safely. Evan Nelson did so twice. Then the bats went silent for three innings for the Raiders.

Simley scored one off starting pitcher Gavin Odman in the fifth to make it 6-1.

“It was a great ball game all the way through. Odman got to 95 pitches through the sixth, so we brought Aaron Vandehoef in for the seventh. Vandy did a great job throwing strikes, but credit to Simley, they were able to hit those strikes and put the ball into play. That happens, that is baseball. They were able to get five on us, so we brought in Eddie Peine to shut things down and he ended up stealing the win,” laughed Stoffel. “Again, that’s baseball. Gavin had a really nice outing, I thought there was a lot of signs from what we saw last year when he had a lot of command and sitting guys down at the plate and we saw a lot of that today.”

That brought the game to the bottom of the seventh. Connor Zgoda pinch hit for Mitch Iliff and was walked. A passed ball to Nelson put him on second. A hit by Nelson moved Zgoda to third. Seleski was intentionally walked to load the bases. A first wild pitch to Cade Kimmes sent Zgoda was streaking toward home. The catcher could not locate the ball in time and Hastings won the game on a walk-off wild pitch.

The bench emptied like the boys won the world series. It was an exciting finish to beat a team that is always hard to take down. Both teams played their hearts out and it made for a very entertaining game.

After the Simley game, there were still three more games scheduled for the week. Coach Stoffel was asked about the compressed week and what it meant for pitchers.

“We have Al Hendrickson tomorrow, he’s got a clean slate, the guys that pitched Monday and Tuesday, they are shut down until Friday, and we have some arms we have not used yet, but it is a juggling act. That is why they say you can never have too much pitching,” explained Stoffel.

After the excitement against Simley, the game against STA was the exact opposite. It was a pitcher’s duel all the way until the end of the game. Hastings scored first blood in the third when Peine hit a one-out double. Hendrickson scored Peine on a double of his own up the middle and Hastings had the 1-0 lead.

The Cadets were baffled by Hendrickson until the third time through the lineup. A leadoff single and second batter walk, and Hastings was looking at trouble with no outs. STA scored two in the bottom of the sixth to go up 2-1 and that is how the game ended. Overall, the game had only 10 total hits with a combined 12 strikeouts.

The next chance to catch the boys is May 3rd at North St. Paul at 7:00 p.m. then May 5th at Two Rivers at 4:30 p.m. There is a game scheduled for Saturday, May 6th at 2:00 p.m. That game will take place, but the venue has changed to Veterans Park in Hastings. Come out early for that one and grab lunch from the Hawks Concessions stand.