The Hastings Raiders Softball Team (11-5) had a stellar week with three wins, two of which were conference foes allowing them to hold on to third place in the Metro East Conference (MEC). The first game of the week was against North St. Paul where the Raiders fell 10-5 on May 6. May 7, the ladies travelled to Eastview where they won 6-3, and they travelled to Hill-Murray May 8 shutting them out 5-0. The final game of the week was May 10 at South St. Paul and the beat the Packers 2-0.
North St. Paul came to town and did everything they could to knock the wind out of the Raiders sails. Hastings jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a Lauren Jenkins double followed up by an RBI for Kylie Evans.
The Polars scored two in the second and one in the third before Hastings scored another in the bottom of the third, a solo homer near the scoreboard in left for Haley Strain. Hastings then tied the game in the fourth when Evans was walked, moved to second on a wild pitch and was driven home by Kaylee Hunt’s double to left center.
North took the lead for good in the top of the fifth, scoring four. Hastings stole two back in the bottom of the fifth, again with Strain and Jenkins crossing home from the bat of Evans.
North extended their lead the next few innings and ended up winning 10-5.
The trip to Eastview was the lone non-conference game and Hastings took the thunder out of the Lightning. Strain was the first runner to cross home for the Raiders doing so as the only run in the first inning thanks to a single by Allie Leflay.
In the second, Addie Seleski hit a two out single, a wild pitch moved her to second and an error on the center fielder allowed her to score from second to give the Raiders the 2-0 lead. Over the next two innings, Eastview stormed back to take the lead 3-2 but that was all the offense they could conjure up.
Evans hit a single and Lilah Gessner came in to pinch run, scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly from Emily Dembroski. Hastings took the lead for good with a three run sixth inning. Jenkins, Evans and Rachel Notch all scored on a bases clearing double that was crushed to the fence by Leflay.
In the outing, Strain threw 118 pitches, 75 strikes and 43 balls. She faced 32 batters, striking out four and walking three. Offensively, Strain was 4-for-5 at the plate with three singles and a triple, Leflay was 3-for-4 with two singles and a double and four RBIs. Evans was 2-for-4 with two singles.
The next two games had no box score or stats available. Hastings shocked Hill-Murray by shutting them out in a 5-0 win on the road then came back and did what good teams do. They took care of things beating the last place team in the MEC, South St. Paul.
With two regular season games left, at Simley and then home on May 17 at 4:30 p.m. against Hopkins, the Raiders are locked into third place. North St. Paul has first locked down. Tartan is second with a 9-3 conference record, Hastings is 8-5 in the conference and both teams have one MEC game left to play. No matter the outcome, Tartan has defeated the Raiders twice this season and holds the head-to-head tie breaker.