DEVILS LAKE — A host of senior leadership graduated from the Devils Lake baseball program last spring.
Some of the key pieces on this year’s team will look quite different.
But the Firebirds have built a strong foundation in the younger levels and are hoping to be competitive again in an Eastern Dakota Conference full of talent.
“It’s a little different not having, especially, those five kids that started three or four years for us,” Devils Lake head coach Brent Luehring said. “Definitely a younger room. We had to move up some junior high kids to fill out our JV roster. But yeah, I’m also excited about the room we have, too. There’s a lot of experience from summer baseball, having that second team. We’re kind of excited on some of the kids that got some experience last year at the varsity level, too. So it should be fun.”
Pitching
Devils Lake’s rotation was anchored by seniors Ben Larson, Hunter Remmick and Parker Brodina last spring. All three had sub-3.00 ERAs, with Remmick’s down at 1.27.
Now, all three have moved on. Larson is playing baseball for Mayville State University, Remmick is playing baseball for Lake Region State College and Brodina is playing basketball for the University of Mary.
It’s time for a new group to take the reins.
It starts at the top with University of Jamestown-committed senior Mason Palmer. While Palmer is also the Firebirds’ best shortstop, Luehring expects him to play a more significant role in this year’s rotation.
Palmer was limited to 11 1/3 innings last spring. He amassed 17 strikeouts in that span. He went on to eviscerate batters during the summer Legion season, allowing just three earned runs in 43 innings. He threw a perfect game in the Legion state tournament.
“He’s definitely going to be firmly in our rotation,” Luehring said. “[His innings number] is going to go up by a long ways. It’s just going to be the necessity of the team. There’s going to be days that he’ll be playing short; there’ll be days that we’ll be calling on him to give us the best start he can get us.”
Palmer is Devils Lake’s hardest thrower and most dominant arm when he’s on the top of his game.
Stepping into the No. 2 slot will be junior Will Heilman. The right-hander was buried behind Devils Lake’s strong senior core last year, but he was remarkably effective whenever he got the chance to pitch. He threw 20 innings last spring with a 1.35 ERA. It included a win over one of the better teams in the EDC, Grand Forks Red River.
“That was a big win for us to get the seeding we finished with,” Luehring said. “And that game, I think, really catapulted him to the rest of the spring he had, and then including the summer that he had.”
Heilman threw 44 innings during Legion ball and pitched to a 2.45 ERA.
“He’s not the most overpowering guy, but he just fills up the zone,” Luehring said. “He has a three-pitch mix, and it’s tough for teams to really square him up. We’re hoping he’s another kid that’s really grown up; I think he’s put on, I think he told us, around 15 pounds since football ended, so I’ve seen some velo increase here. He just looks bigger and more mature, and ready to take that next step.”
Luehring is looking for Cayden McCarthy and Ben Brodina to fill out the rest of the rotation.
It will be the first year in the varsity rotation for both of them.
McCarthy, now a junior, has been getting varsity action since he was a freshman. He pitched mostly for the B team over the summer but got occasional stints on the A squad.
Like Heilman, there’s a clearer spot for him on the depth chart now.
“If you were going to line kids up and say which kid looks like he could really take that next step,” Luehring said, “he’s got the frame and the ability.”
Luehring said McCarthy has been working on his game since the moment last season ended.
McCarthy played on a travel baseball team out of Minnesota that went down to Arizona in January.
“You can tell that he’s definitely improved his body, and we like where he’s at right now,” Luehring said. “Just a question of if it translates to the high school level here.”
Brodina is a sophomore and will be on the varsity roster for the first time.
Brodina spent most of the summer with the A team and thrived — granted, the majority of his reps came on the position-player side.
Hitting and fielding
The two most obvious holes to replace in the field are up the middle.
“Up the middle, you’ve got to be strong,” Luehring said. “You’ve got to have kids that play a long time there.”
Catcher Trason Beck and center fielder Fausten Olson both graduated last spring. They each excelled at their position and provided timely hits in the lineup. They started for Devils Lake throughout the majority of their high school careers.
“You just write them in the lineup, and you don’t worry about it,” Luehring said.
The first name Luehring brought up in the center field discussion was sophomore Alex Hammond.
“He’s kind of been the center fielder on our youth groups, kind of waiting behind Fausten for a chance to play,” Luehring said. “Between him, and maybe Ben Brodina can play there a little bit — we feel pretty good about things. I’d say right now, if we had to go with a guy, it’d probably be Alex.”
Hammond is another first-year varsity player. He’s not short, though, listed at 6-foot-2 on the basketball roster.
“He’s a little longer than Fausten,” Luehring said. “Foot speed’s pretty comparable, but I think they’ve both got pretty similar instincts on how they track the ball off the bat. And I think maybe arm-wise, he might be a little ahead of Fausten. So yeah, we’ll see. It’ll be a development piece, but I think we’ve got a guy that can play there, for sure.”
The catcher position is a little more up for grabs.
The most experienced catcher on the team is Riley Brenno-Quale, a fixture on the junior varsity and B teams in recent years. Brenno-Quale hasn’t had a lot of varsity time.
Luehring brought up Brodina, who particularly excels with his arm and pop time.
“He can catch; he’s just a competitor,” Luehring said.
Luehring also added Heilman’s name to the conversation.
“I like Will’s frame,” Luehring said. “Will’s kind of dabbled with catching in the offseason, and just trying to move some pieces around and trying to make us deeper.
“So we’re kind of going to roll with those three, and kind of let the chips fall where they may. Early in the year, you might see a little of all of them, and I’m hoping by the middle of April, if we can get outside and get playing … I’m hoping we have two guys we can trust.”
Heilman has previously played in the infield and outfield for Devils Lake.
In games where Palmer isn’t pitching, the Palmer twins will more than likely be the middle infielders, with Mason at short and Max at second. Max Palmer, like his brother, is committed to the University of Jamestown. He had a breakout spring last year, hitting a team-best .339. Max can also play third base, although the bulk of the playing time there will likely go to Easton Kraft.
Kraft is a good contact hitter who, like Brodina, spent most of the spring on JV but found a place on the A team over the summer. Last spring, Kraft reached base six times in 14 varsity plate appearances. He went on to hit .295 with a .421 OBP in 76 Legion plate appearances.
“He’s going to get the first crack [at third base], for sure,” Luehring said of Kraft. “He might have to play some first base for us when Cayden [McCarthy] throws. So Cayden’s also going to be a new piece in the infield, too; he’s played a lot of outfield for us, and with Hunter and Parker no longer around, that spot’s kind of open. So I think between Cayden and Easton, you’re probably going to see a lot of them at the corners.”
Remmick was another one of Devils Lake’s best hitters last year. He typically DH’d or played first base.
Luehring added that he likes the positional versatility Max Palmer brings. While he’ll mostly be penciled in at second, he could also play third base or shortstop, and he might get some more relief innings than in past years, too.
There’s also the always-steady Taydon Triepke, a left-handed strike thrower who’s thrown a lot of valuable innings out of the bullpen in recent years. He can also play outfield as need be.
Tayven Wiberg and Jaxon Strong are also on the roster this year after playing mostly JV/B thus far.
Season outlook
Devils Lake is ranked seventh out of 11 teams in the preseason EDC coaches poll.
In 2024, Devils Lake was picked ninth out of 12 teams and ended up taking fourth.
In 2025, Devils Lake was picked seventh out of 12 teams and took sixth.
“We’ve kind of earned that spot, I think,” Luehring said. “We’ve always kind of been maybe a little overlooked, but we always feel good about what we have here and the work we put in with them basically from January until August.”
The top three in the poll are West Fargo Horace, Fargo South and Grand Forks Red River. Those teams have players committed to colleges like the University of Oregon (Horace’s Cason Borchardt) and Texas A&M (South’s Caden Nelson).
Ranked fourth in the poll is defending state champion West Fargo Sheyenne, which only took seventh in the regular-season standings before going on to win the whole thing.
“You’re trying to get to that EDC tournament, and then anything can happen,” Luehring said. “We split with [Sheyenne], and thought we should have had them both against them.”
The top eight teams in the standings make the EDC tournament. That means three teams are left out.
“I think for us, there’s going to be a lot of new pieces that a lot of teams don’t know about,” Luehring said. “And if they do what we think they can do, I think that seven mark is something…that should motivate them to reach a higher level than that.”
The EDC system will work a little differently this year. Last year, with 12 teams, each doubleheader was either a single two-point counter or two one-point counters. Valley City dropped down to Class B for this season, so now there’s an odd number of teams.
All EDC doubleheaders will consist of two one-point counters this year. Exceptions could potentially be made for games that are rescheduled due to weather.
The EDC will now be doing what the Western Dakota Association was already doing.
“I think that’s going to make some things interesting, because the teams with some deeper pitching, I think, it’s going to benefit,” Luehring said. “I think we have an opportunity there to stretch out our pitching staff. I think you’re also going to see a lot of teams mixing and matching — teams they think they can do well against or teams that they might struggle against, I think you’re probably going to see some teams saving arms for certain opponents. And we might be in that category, too.”
The Firebirds are scheduled to begin their season Tuesday in Belcourt against Turtle Mountain at 4:30 p.m.
Their home opener is set for April 7 against Grafton, with their EDC opener to follow on Friday, April 10 against Grand Forks Central at DLYA Field.
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