By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings sports calendar is a busy one for the middle of May. Nearly all teams finish their regular season buy May 18 with some sports playing exhibition games for the last week to keep sharp for the Metro East Conference playoffs. Raiders Baseball is no exception.

Monday, May 10, the Raiders had a double header at Veterans Park against Simley. Game one started with Hastings jumping out to an early 3-0 lead. Simley chipped away until the sixth inning. In the top of the sixth, Simley scored four to take the 6-4 lead.

Hastings answered right back in the bottom of the sixth to tie it, but Simley took the lead again in the top of the seventh, 7-6. But the cardiac kids were not done. Hastings scored in the seventh to tie it then the bases were loaded. This time, instead of being the winning run at third, Simon Hedin was the hero at the plate. Hedin’s walk off shot scored the winning run.

Game two, the Raiders again took an early lead. One run in the first, one in the second and it was 2-0 until Simley went on the offensive in the bottom of the third, scoring three. Simley added two in the fifth to win 5-2, splitting the double header.

Wednesday, Hastings travelled to Tartan to take on the Titans. The game was tied 0-0 heading into the top of the fourth. Hastings had two touch home and held the lead the rest of the game scoring four more. The final from Tartan 6-2 Raiders.

Friday Mahtomedi came to town in an action packed first few innings, the Zephyrs overcame two errors to have a 3-1 lead heading into the third. Anthony Neubeck of Mathomedi put a Simon Hedin fastball over the right field fence in the third for the final run of the game. Mahtomedi kept the Raider bats quiet, winning 4-1 at Grossman.

Saturday had the Raiders travelling to Burnsville for a matinee game. Hastings scored first in the third, but the Blaze answered back in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead 3-1. Hastings tied it at three in the top of the fifth. One additional run scored the remainder of the game, unfortunately, that was by Burnsville in the bottom of the sixth. Hasting fell 4-3.

With dropping three of their last five, that put the Raiders at 8-6 (9-7 overall) on the season. The game against St. Thomas Academy is a key game for deciding the Raiders fate in the standings. A win could position them for a run at second place, a loss could drop them to sixth, both depending on the rest of the conference.

Hastings has four games remaining on the season, three of which are on the road. First at St. Thomas on Monday the 17th, then Hill-Murray on the 19th, and Rosemount on the 21st. The final game of the season will be Senior Night against Park of Cottage Grove at Veterans Park on May 26th, 7:00 p.m. The Park game was supposed to start the season, but due to COVID protocols, it will be the regular season finale.

Raider ace Simon Hedin pitched well in his start against Mahtomedi despite giving up four runs, including a home run to the Zephyr’s Anthony Neubeck in the third inning.

Photo by Bruce Karnick