The Hastings Raiders baseball team earned a massive section win, coming from behind in an extra innings marathon that flirted with darkness to beat their neighbors to the north Park of Cottage Grove 2-1 in 11 innings.
It was looking like it could be a history making pitchers duel early in the contest, as Gavin Odman and Brady Drkula looked unstoppable on the mound. The Raiders would get their first hit midway through the contest and for a while it looked like it was going to be the only hit, until they would add a few more in the 5th. But they couldn’t score, and the game was tied at 0 heading into the 6th inning. Gavin Odman was working a perfect game through 5, having retired every batter. After his 16th straight out, Park would break up the perfect game on a single to left field in the top of the 6th inning. That would be the only blemish for Odman though, as he would go the full 7 without surrendering anything else.
Hastings had a chance to end it in the 7th, but could not muster any runs and to extra innings we went.
Mark DeNoyer took to the mound in the 8th, and Park would get some base runners, but the Raiders would avoid disaster and thanks to some excellent fielding, they would get out of the inning with no issues. Neither team would score in the 9th either and on to the 10th we went.
In the 10th inning, the Wolfpack would draw first blood, as Park would load the bases, but despite two straight runners being thrown out at third, the Wolfpack would still score the game’s first run to go up 1-0. The Raiders would quickly go down two outs in the order, with the 7-8-9 hitters at the plate, meaning it was on the shoulders… and the bat… of DeNoyer to save the game, and boy did he deliver. With two outs, and down to his last strike, DeNoyer launched a ball into left field, and it carried deep to the wall and over the left field fence for a stunning home run. The shocking turn of events saw the game tied at 1 and we ended up heading to the 11th.
In the 11th inning, Alex Hendrickson took to the mound trying to keep the Wolfpack off the scoreboard. That he would do, and in the Bottom of the 11th, Hastings would load the bases on a couple walks and a hit by pitch. After Mitch Iliff was intentionally walked, Park turned to a new pitcher to keep the game going, but Anselment would get hit in the lower leg, advancing the runner at 3rd and ending the game, with the Raiders victorious. As the rain started to fall mere moments after the game ended, the Raider players celebrated a pivotal section win. Hastings is now 8-4, 7-3 on the season and returns to action Wednesday against Simley.
Stat lines from the contest:
Hendrickson ended up getting the victory, going 2/3 of an inning with 1 hit and 1 strikeout.
Odman’s sensational statline was 7 IP, 1 H, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts
DeNoyer went 3 1/3 with 2 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, and 5 walks
Hitting wise, Iliff went 2-3 and was walked twice, while DeNoyer had the home run and an RBI. Jack Seleski and Evan Nelson also had hits for the Raiders, and Anselment had the walk off RBI.
