Baseball’s excellent season falls short of state

By Bruce Karnick

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The Raiders baseball season was that of promise. With key seniors returning and a strong group of underclassmen, there was a ton of promise on the roster for 昀rst year head coach Ryan Sto昀el and his coaching sta昀.

The Raiders started the season with a win over Park of Cottage Grove and they went on a 12-0 run before dropping two games to Mahtomedi.

Park – W 7-1 North St. Paul – W 5-0 Two Rivers – W 6-2 South St. Paul – W 12-2 Simley – W 4-1 Apple Valley – W 7-3 North St. Paul – W 8-1 Two Rivers – W 8-3 South St. Paul – W 20-10 Tartan – W 17-10 Tartan – W 6-5 Mahtomedi – L 4-11 Mahtomedi – L 3-11 St. Thomas Acad. W 14-4 St. Thomas Acad. W 6-3 Simley – W 10-6 Burnsville – W 6-5 Hill-Murray – L 6-9 North昀eld – W 13-4 In the 昀rst 12 games, the Raiders outscored their opponents 110-38 and in the regular season they outscored opponents 172-91. Hastings 昀nished the regular season with a 17-3 record.

Once in the playo昀s, they received the four seed and fell to the 昀ve seed Eagan 5-4. For game two, they beat Apple Valley 11-1 and then lost their 昀nal game to Rosemount 6-4 to 昀nish the year at 18-5.

On the mound, the Raiders were led by Gavin Odman who pitched in 10 games going 5-1 with one save and an ERA of 3.17. Alex Hendrickson appeared in eight games on the mound with a 4-0 record and a 2.90 ERA. Connor Sto昀el appeared in seven games with a 4-1 record and a 2.41 ERA.

O昀ensively, Sto昀el led the team with a .471 average with 68 at bats and 25 RBI. Tanner Anselment had a .424 average with 59 at bats and 13 RBI. Scha昀er and Hendrickson had a .397 and .379 average respectively.

Hastings graduated eight this year, Carter Schulte, Joe Schuster, Sto昀el, Scha昀er, Carson Handrich, Axel Arnold, Caleb Kimmes, Carson Thuet. 12 of the Remaining Raiders were Juniors and 10 were tenth graders so there is a lot of depth behind this senior class.