By Bruce Karnick

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Outdoor spring sports are tough to schedule in a normal year, add COVID restrictions and quarantines in the mix and it gets chaotic. The Raider boys tennis team had three matches scheduled last week, but mother nature felt that two last week were enough when she rained out the match on Tuesday. Aside from the rain out, Assistant Coach Marissa Welch earned a temporary promotion of sorts because Head Coach Alex Zuzek and his wife had their first child! Congrats Zuzeks! Coach Zuzek gave us a quick update. “Baby Archie was born on April 28 and is a healthy little guy. He and mom are recovering well at home! We love him very much, and he is our first child. We are busy and enjoying it. We are looking forward to watching him grow over the summer when we are both home!” Regarding the birth, “I’m pulling triple duty,” Coach Welch quipped on Thursday. She was very happy for her co-worker and his family mentioning how excited Zuzek was and how excited she was for them. With the amount of space that the coaches have to monitor, it looked as though Coach Welch may have brought in back up just in case another coach was needed. Head Hockey Coach, Adam Welch was hanging out with their kids. I’m sure he was there to cheer on the team and support his wife, but timing and cuteness of him being a potential back up coach was too adorable to not speculate on. Thursday, the Cadets came to town on a beautiful afternoon. Unfortunately, St. Thomas Academy thumped the Raiders 6-1. The lone bright spot for the Raiders was a win by Brady Zak 4-6, 6-4, 10-8.

Friday, the Raiders held their “fill the hill” event at Roadside Park against the Rosemount Irish. Fill the Hill is a night game under the lights encouraging students and fans to fill the hill behind the courts to cheer on the Varsity team. Hastings would fare only slightly better at this outing falling 5-2 to the Irish. Singles No. 1 – Austin Johnson, Rosemount def. Charlie Scharr, Hastings, 6-1 , 6-0 , -; No. 2 – Brady Zak, Hastings def. Brady Hines, Rosemount, 6-1 , 4-6 , 10-4 ; No. 3 – Eric Barber, Hastings def. Ben Pilger, Rosemount, 6-3 , 6-4 , -; No. 4 – Patrick Grunklee, Rosemount def. Ryan Fagnant, Hastings, 6-4 , 6-3 , -; Doubles: No. 1 – Jacob Otness, Rosemount – Matt Mracek, Rosemount def. Henry Ascheman, Hastings – Michael Johnson, Hastings, 6-3 , 6-0 , -; No. 2 – Jonah Bergstrom, Rosemount – Varun Rajan, Rosemount def. Caleb Teegarden, Hastings – Brady Teegarden, Hastings, 7-5 , 6-0 , -; No. 3 – Johnny Cavalli, Rosemount – Anders Otness, Rosemount def. Will Clifford, Hastings – Devon Yang, Hastings, 6-3 , 6-0 , -; The boys Host Tartan on Monday the third, travel to Henry Sibley on the fourth, travel to Mahtomedi the fifth, then travel to South St. Paul on Friday. Monday the 10th they are back home against Stillwater then again home on Wednesday the 12th against St. Paul Highland Park.