The Raiders softball team started the season with a hard-fought win over Hill-Murray, then cruised to 2-0 on the season with an 8-3 win over South St. Paul before their home opener against Two Rivers on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon on April 18th. Despite the 3-1 lead, Hastings was unable to hold on and generate enough offense, falling 6-3.

Hastings started the game with Lauren Jenkins getting hit by the very first pitch from Two Rivers. Sienna McCoy laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Jenkins to second on the next pitch. Kylie Evans dropped a blooper into right field to drive in Jenkins for the first run of the game, giving Hastings the 1-0 lead after one inning.

The Warriors Sophia Braun was masterful on the mound for most of the game. She struck out nine of the first 15 Raiders she faced, keeping the Raiders to a 1-0 lead until the fourth when the Warriors tied the game. Braun also had her hiccups, hitting Jenkins not once, but twice in her first two at bats, the second hit by pitch coming in the third inning. This time, the Raiders did not capitalize on that opportunity.

The score remained knotted at one until the bottom of the fifth when Rachel Notch drove a liner to right for a single. Notch then stole second before Allie Leflay walked. Lauren Muhl crushed a fly ball to center field that should have been caught but the outfielder dropped the ball, scoring Notch and moving Leflay to third. Muhl stole second and the Warriors bit perfectly on the delayed steal to allow Leflay to steal home for the second run of the inning. Muhl was moved to third on a fly to center by McCoy, but she was stranded there. Hastings once again had the lead, this time 3-1.

Two Rivers scored two in the top of the sixth to even the score 3-3 and Hastings was unable to counter in the bottom of the sixth. In the top of the seventh, Two Rivers sent eight players to the plate, scoring three runs to take the lead 6-3. Hastings could not wake up the bats in the bottom of the seventh and the game ended with the Warriors winning 6-3.

Raider ace Haley Strain pitched well overall, throwing 85 strikes and 51 balls for a total of 136 pitches. In facing 35 batters, Strain struck out nine while walking four.

An important note regarding softball pitching, it is significantly different than baseball pitching. There are no pitch limits and no required rest days in softball like there are in Baseball. When mastered, the underhand throw is actually more natural and less harmful to the joints, so much so that Strain, when asked how she felt, said she was probably going to get up at 5:00 a.m. to go throw for an hour just to relax the day after the loss.

At the plate, the Raiders struck out 13 times and walked once with two hits. Evans and Notch had the lone hits for the Raiders while Jenkins, Notch and Leflay each scored a run.

After the game, Head Coach Jen Thesing took a few minutes to chat and give us her thoughts on the game.

“We ran the bases pretty well. I will say that we need to work on making some adjustments in both in our fielding and in our hitting, but… you know… we're a young team, so we'll chalk this up to a learning experience today,” she said.

After a tough loss, it is always interesting to hear what practice will look like the next day.

“I want to work on some pickoff throws, I want to make sure our defense is tight again, and just kind of make sure our heads are back where they need to be. We have pictures tomorrow too, so that will be a good ‘let's learn how to refocus’ thing too,” Thesing explained.

During the game, Evans was playing first base and twice she had line drives hit to her right and twice, the hits went off her glove or wrist. Both hits had some speed to them and were not the easiest plays to handle. Coach Thesing was asked how that kind of situation throws everyone off defensively.

“When Fike (assistant coach Chad Feikema) is running the defenses, he likes to challenge the kids have put them in chaos, right? So that's a chaos play and something we're pretty familiar with as far as you know, how practices go. So, Rachel Notch, this was her first time playing in a varsity game and her first time playing second base. She’s a shortstop when she's playing with JV, so she was in a new position. I think she did super well, but having some new people and some new places, maybe that maybe that's part of that,” said Thesing.

Notch was called up to Varsity due to a very sorrowful reason, Emily Dembroski’s father passed away from a long-term illness earlier Thursday morning. Thankfully for the Dembroski’s, he was able to see her play one last time against Hill-Murray. As reporters, we are very lucky to get to know these kids on a level that we can never truly portray in a story and sharing this news is heartbreaking. Our thoughts and those of her teammates are with the Dembroski family during this difficult time.

The rest of the week’s games were postponed due to weather which compresses the short season even more. The next chance to catch the Raiders in action is at Simley on April 26th, then at Mahtomedi on April 27th, then finally at home on April 28th against Eastview. They also have a game at home on May 1st against South St. Paul, at Burnsville on May 2nd and at Tartan on May 3rd. All games are currently scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. start.