The Raiders had a busy schedule last week. Monday saw a 3-2 win over Tartan, Tuesday a tough 5-1 loss to North St. Paul, Wednesday a hard fought 6-0 win over Simley on their annual ‘Strike out Cancer’ game and finally a huge 14-1 win over Mahtomedi to end the week 3-1. A fifth game was scheduled for Friday, but Mother Nature thought the ladies needed a night off, so that game was postponed with no makeup date communicated yet. Overall, the Raiders sit in second place in the conference at 5-2 behind the 8-0 North St. Paul (NSP) Polars.

Tuesday’s game against the Polars seemed to have nothing go right for the Raiders. NSP somehow has a way to take the Raiders off their game plan and they seem to get in Hastings’ head. The game was tied 0-0 until a five run fifth gave the Polars the lead for good.

“It was mental errors,” said Head Coach Jen Thesing.

Thesing was clearly frustrated at how the entire fifth inning played out, “We had… ah… I mean… that maybe, probably should have been 2-1. There was a little bit of a questionable call on the batted ball that maybe hit the runner in the box, stuff like that. That was tough.”

Coaches try to tread very carefully when discussing poor officiating, but the frustrations were clear on the side of not only Thesing, but Raider fans. The fans did a mostly good job of not chirping the umpire too much, but after the game and after the officials were long gone, they did not hold back.  Inconsistent strike zones, a home plate umpire that could not remember the count or remember what he was calling strikes. The same umpire that could not move quick enough to get into the proper position to make the right calls in the field. There was some genuine concern about the umpire’s health brought up. Yes, statewide, there is a desperate need for sports officials, but at some point, the thought process of taking any warm body and calling them an official needs to change to focusing on making sure they are qualified to do the job, especially if they can have such an impact on the outcome.

Aside from the mental errors and questionable officiating, there were some bright spots from the NSP game.

“We adjusted our hitting, that's something we've struggled with in the past couple games. So, it was good to see that. We got through the order a couple of times when we made the adjustments, and we got runners on base. So that was a positive,” explained Thesing.

Thesing also explained that there was a lack of inner focus and that cost the Raiders the game, but the team brought a ton of good energy, which is exciting to see. That lead to them having to figure out how to focus that energy, and they did the next day in their 6-0 win over Simley.

The Simley game snowballed into the Mahtomedi game where Hastings thumped the Zephyrs 14-1. The Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 lead and had seven batters in the first inning. From then on it was all Hastings. By the time the game was over, Hastings cruised to a 14-1 victory in five innings.

The next chance to catch the girls in action is May 3rd at Tartan at 4:15 p.m. then Hastings Softball Day at Vets Park on Saturday, May 6! Games begin at 9:00 a.m. and progress through the ages until the varsity game caps off the action around 8:00 p.m. against Hill Murray.