By Bruce Karnick

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After spending 14 days off due to COVID protocol, the Hastings boys played host to the Tartan Titans Wednesday at Grossman Field. It was a cold and windy day for baseball, but the boys didn’t care, they were playing.

Starting pitcher, Senior Simon Hedin, was throwing well to start the game and kept the Titans off the board for the first two innings. In the bottom of the second, the Raider bats came alive and Hastings finished the second with a 3-0 lead. Tartan fought back in the top of the third, scoring two runs. Then, something weird happened.

Head Coach Taylor Pagel explained his reaction to the play. “I told myself I’m gonna go look that up. It’s one of those things that I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen as a coach. I don’t think it’s ever happened when I’ve played. Yeah, it’s, it’s one of those odd rules that normally if it hits you, it’s a dead ball, right. Now the batter swings, which instantly becomes a strike.”

The play in question had the fans in an uproar. Tartan had a runner on second, Hedin threw a high, inside pitch and the Tartan player swung at it. The problem is, the ball hit him in the back shoulder. Because the player was swinging, it’s called a strike, not a hit by pitch, but, because a part of the body was hit, the ball should and was declared a dead ball. The issue was, the Tartan player on second advanced to third thinking it was simply a strike call, not a dead ball or a foul call.

The rules clearly state that when a batter is hit by the ball, it is a dead ball. Three conditions must be met to be considered a hit by pitch. The player must be touched by a pitched ball outside the strike zone AND he attempts to avoid it OR had no opportunity to avoid it, AND he did not swing at the pitch.

Because the batter did swing, he did not automatically get first base, but because it was a dead ball, the runner should have been sent back to second. He was not. The subsequent pitch was a passed ball and the runner scored from third.

The crowd was chirping at the umpire as crowds like to do trying to convince the umpire of his error. The funny thing about the crowd chirping is, two of the people in the crowd were experienced umpires and both of them agreed the call was wrong. But that also meant they did not hear Coach Pagel talking to the umpire.

“I did say something to the umpire and he said no, he is awarded that base and I said are you sure, and he said yes and he would not send him back so I did ask him I didn’t say something. It wasn’t a time for me to go out and, you know, game one just wasn’t a time for me to go and make a big stink of it, especially because I was a little unsure myself at the time, you know, so. But I did say something, I did ask, and then I did ask again, pretty much saying are you sure, and he said yes. And so we had to just go with it at that time, we need to make a better pitch the next the next pitch, we need to keep that guy at third, we need to do a better job of taking care of the baseball and we learned from it,” Coach Pagel explained.

Hastings ended up losing the game by one run. The final 4-3 Tartan.

“We had so many guys on base, and guys on second and third, and just could not come up with that big hit to score another one,” added Coach Pagel.

Friday, the boys travelled to Mahtomedi to take on the Zephyrs. Again, the bats came alive early for Hastings and again, they let their opponent back in the game in the next inning. This time, Hastings jumped all over a few miscues by Mahtomedi and scored six in the second inning.

“One of the things we talked about after the game was working on, not allowing the big inning, but also scoring again later. And having those big at bats and big, you know, big opportunities of scoring when we have them and taking advantage of those, those runs. We’re up six nothing we can’t, can’t go on our heels, we kind of did the same thing with tartan up three nothing, and kinda relax,” Coach Pagel said after Friday’s game.

Mahtomedi came back in the third and scored four, and that is where the scoring ended. Hastings won 6-4 moving to 1-1 on their young season.

The COVID protocol is likely to have a big impact on the Raiders all season. Pagel explained. “We’re gonna be behind in pitching where nobody else is because you know they’re playing three games in a week and we’re playing six games in a week, so that’s where we’re gonna be at the biggest disadvantage, it’s going to be a rough couple of weeks.” The advantage Hastings has though, is forcing them to use some of the younger pitchers in a more active role. They will have to rely on pitchers going 70-80 pitches per game and because of rest requirements, use other pitchers in a starting role. That will give the younger guys an advantage come playoff time.

Another aspect that this will help, is offense, something Coach Pagel is excited for. “I think the second we get caught up, we are going to be at the advantage ourselves just because our bats going to be hot, everybody’s going to have an opportunity to throw. So we’re going to know who we can trust late in the season. That’ll give them the confidence and we’ll be, you know, we’ll be in the driver’s seat at that point.”

Hastings played host to St. Thomas Academy Monday night, then travelled to Hill-Murray Wednesday. Friday the 30th they will host Apple Valley then they travel to North on Monday, May 3rd. They have a double header against Henry Sibley on May fifth then host a double header at Veterans Park on the 7th. There are plenty of opportunities to catch the Raiders in action coming up as they will play 10 games in 14 days.

Hastings ace Simon Hedin on the mound for Hastings first game of the season against Tartan. Hedin was replaced by Devin Peterson late in the game. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Connor Stoffel scores after Nate Obinger put the ball in play, giving the Raiders the 3-0 lead in the second inning against Tartan. Photo by Bruce Karnick