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Softball Hitting Stride Towards Sections

By Sammy Muetzel '21, 05/03/21, 9:00AM CDT

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Softball season is finally here, and it couldn’t have come soon enough. After not being able to have a season last year, it is great to be back and playing again. Along with COVID-19, we have already had to face challenges this season with rain, cold weather, and even a little bit of snow. 

However, none of that matters as long as we are able to keep playing the game we all love. We have a very special team this year, and we are a very young group. After losing seven seniors from last year's class, we have a very young and inexperienced team. However, we have shown this year that no matter our age or experience, we can compete with any team. 

With a tough conference, one of our team goals is to just battle and play with all of the teams in our conference. In my opinion, our conference is the best in the state, but our team this year has been able to play strongly against  every team we have played so far. 

Another goal of our team is to make it through our section. We moved down a class for sections, and we still have some tough competition to get through. TCDH moves to our section, this year will be the first year we will be playing the teams in our section. Our section consists of Simley, Bloomington Kennedy, Holy Angels, Visitation, South St. Paul, Richfield, and St. Paul Highland Park. The section playoffs start May 31st, and our team is very excited to be able to compete against new teams and have a chance to make it to Mankato for the state tournament.It has been everyone’s dream to make it to Mankato and be able to play in a state tournament, and our team truly believes this could be our year. 

A few individual standouts are our pitchers Catie Gaertner ’23 and Brooke Nesdahl ’25 both earned their first varsity wins this past week. Along with our young players making an impact, we have a great senior group to lead us. Our veterans Frances Staples ’21, Ella Klein ’21, Shannon Cummings ’21, Keely Salisbury ’21, Emma Radenbaugh ’21, and Caroline Kitchen ’21 are all great leaders and great assets to our team, and every one of them will be a big contributor to our successes as a team this season. 

The Raiders’ schedule is very challenging with our tough conference, all of the games are big games. However, a few standout games that will be tough and where we will really have to come to play are against Park, East Ridge, and White Bear this week along with Stillwater and Forest Lake next week. 

Finally, along with our great group of seniors leading our team, we are coached by our head Patrick Bowlin and our assistant coach Dennis Czech. Our coaches are a great asset to our team, and they do a great job helping lead us through our tough conference. I can’t say enough about how special and talented our team is, and we can’t wait for you all to come watch us play. Go Raiders!