By Bruce Karnick

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Headed in to their third week of competitions, the Raider softball team was 1-1 with a loss to Hill-Murray and a win against Henry Sibley. Since the last edition of The Journal, the Raiders had four games.

Tuesday the 27th at home against the Tartan Titans. A cold, wet, game that did not go the way of the Raiders. Tartan scored eight in the top of the first and seven in the top of the second. Tartan won 17-7.

Thursday the 29th they travelled to South St. Paul to take on the Packers. The Raiders were ready to take out their frustrations from the previous game on the Packers. The game went back and forth a for the first few innings until Hastings took command.

“We had a couple first inning jitters but came out well after that, hit the ball hard. I think almost everybody in the lineup had a hit, including our subs so I’m pretty happy with that,” Head Coach Jennifer Thesing said after the game.

“Those first innings we had some mental miscues, and they were in the field mostly so, like, you know, we corrected them during the game and finished fine,” added Coach Thesing.

The Raiders had a week free from games, which is a rarity in a compressed high school season, Coach Thesing expanded on that luxury, “Last week we had all practices instead of games so we had some time to prepare. Looking forward to Hill [Murray] tomorrow to get some revenge against them, and then a ranked Eastridge that we play on Saturday.”

They did get their revenge at Hill-Murray on Friday, defeating the Pioneers 4-2. The trip to Eastridge did not work in the favor of Hastings. They fell there 9-2.

On the season, the Raiders are right in the middle of the Metro East Conference. North is 6-0 followed byu Mahtomedi and Tartan at 4-2, then Hastings at 3-3.

Coach Thesing is excited with the team’s efforts. “The Girls have been working hard, it’s starting to show on the field so I’m looking to get some more W’s under their belts.”

The Raiders play a double header on Tuesday, May Fourth at Mahtomedi, travel to North on Wednesday, and then to Henry Sibley on Thursday. They complete the marathon week, returning home on Friday, May Seventh, to host North. Next week, they were scheduled to play another three days in a row starting Tuesday at home against Simley, then Wednesday at Simley and Thursday at Tartan. The final game of the regular season is May 18th at home against South St. Paul.

Haley Hoff nearly earned the complete game win against South St. Paul on Thursday. Dehydration set in after a pickoff attempt turned into a classic game of pickle. The Raiders earned the out, and the win, but Hoff had to leave the field before completing the game. Photo by Bruce Karnick