Mother Nature may not be able to figure out what she wants to do for the region, but if social media shows us one thing, fans are ready for baseball season. The Twins, the Saints, Colleges, the Hawks and now the Raiders are ready to take to the field to play America’s game. The Raiders took advantage of the two days of nice weather to take in a competitive scrimmage against Lakeville North on Friday.
Scrimmages for high school sports are friendly opportunities to get some live action practice without officials and scores being kept. The ‘no official’ piece is vital to the scrimmage rules for high school sports. If a paid official is used, the Minnesota State High School League considers the scrimmage to be a game.
By all accounts, the scrimmage seemed to go well with both teams taking the opportunity to put a variety of varsity and junior varsity players in different positions, batters were able to get live swings in against pitching they had not seen, and pitchers had a chance to test their stuff against live batting.
Head coach Ryan Stoffel had this to say about the scrimmage, “It was just nice to get on the field in a game like environment and compete. We graduated eight starters last year, so there is a lot of opportunities all across the field for kids to take it and run with it. Matt Sherry and Cole Werner looked good on the mound. Carter Lundstrom was sick, but we know what to expect from him.”
Stoffel’s excitement to see what he has is palpable, with eight starters graduating, the entire team is going to be new starters with the exception of some of the pitching staff, a key piece highlighted by Stoffel.
“For us everything will start with pitching,” he said. “I believe we have a rotation that can give us a chance to win. We just need to take care of the baseball and give ourselves a chance with the bats.”
The first official contest for Hastings is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. against Park of Cottage Grove at Hastings High School on Friday, April 4. April 7, the boys travel to Hill-Murray for another 4:30 start then they return home to take on St. Thomas Academy on April 9, again, at 4:30 p.m.