DEVILS LAKE — The Devils Lake softball team came into Friday with one last chance to take the field.
Already mathematically eliminated from making the Eastern Dakota Conference tournament, the Firebirds had nothing to lose. They came out on a ferociously windy day — a theme for this season — and played their last two games of 2026 at the Devils Lake Sports Complex against Fargo Davies.
“We just wanted to go all out,” Devils Lake head coach Courtney Loegering said. “We knew that we were playing the No. 1 team in the conference. They’re super good. They have an excellent pitcher. Their bats are always on. And we were prepared for that. Practiced in the dust storm [Thursday], and we just wanted to kind of give our seniors one last go-all-out.”
Devils Lake (2-9, 2-16) lost a two-point EDC game, 13-0, against Davies (18-6, 13-5). The Firebirds finished in ninth place out of 10 teams in the EDC. They’ll miss the EDC tournament for the second consecutive season.
“Obviously, it didn’t go our way,” Loegering said of this season. “I think the scores of our games don’t really reflect on how well we can play.”
The teams also played a non-counter varsity game on Friday that Davies won, 17-7 in six innings. Loegering said it was Davies’ idea to play the extra contest.
“They wanted us to play that second game, save their JV for that tournament that they have [Saturday], which we were okay with,” Loegering said. “We used it as a non-conference game to get girls in different positions. We wanted to get some of those seniors their playing time, and then get some of the younger girls that varsity experience to prepare for next season.”
In the two-point counter, Devils Lake had to contend with Davies sophomore pitcher Sophie Rerick. She’s the sister of Oklahoma baseball pitcher Drew Rerick, a former Davies standout who cracked MLB draft prospect lists as a senior. The Rericks are cousins of Devils Lake’s Heilman family, including Devils Lake baseball player Will Heilman.
It appeared the younger Rerick must have learned a thing or two from her brother. She overpowered the Firebirds with her blazing fastball, striking out nine over five scoreless innings. The only Devils Lake hit came from Ava Beck to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Her courtesy runner was picked off, so Rerick still faced the minimum.
“She’s just a great player. She’s excellent,” Loegering said of Rerick. “She’s really good about hitting her spots and really knowing how to work the count, and she’s good at reading where our girls are struggling to hit, or any opponent that she has. She’s very disciplined. … Fun to play against her.”
Devils Lake hung in with Davies for the first inning. Senior pitcher Julia McIvor worked around two walks in the top of the first, as Beck picked off a runner to end the inning. McIvor opened the game with a hitless frame.
Davies’ offense got going for eight runs on six hits in the second inning, highlighted by a three-run homer from Elle Mann.
McIvor stayed in the circle through the fourth inning. Davies added two runs in the third and one in the fourth.
“Last year was like pulling teeth trying to get [McIvor] to pitch. And now she wants to pitch all the time this year, which was great,” Loegering said. “Really had to step up as our new ace pitcher. And she did exactly what we asked. Obviously it’s difficult to pitch in the wind, but she did her job.”
Sophomore Emmy Remmick pitched the top of the fifth and allowed two runs on three hits and three walks.
Taking her first at-bat of the game, Remmick grounded out on a nice play by Rerick to end it.
After the first game, the Firebirds honored their seven seniors with a brief ceremony on the field and some friendly words from teammates. The varsity seniors were McIvor, Taylor Leben, Madison Harris, Jadeyn Kempel, Sariyah Ponder, Madison Hettwer and Skyleigh Jetty.
“It’s really hard to see them go,” Loegering said. “They’ve been extremely good with the leadership and being mentors for our younger group that we have here. It’s gonna be extremely difficult to replace them, but I think they’ve showed their skills and showed really what it means to be a true Firebird player. And I think they’re satisfied with where they’re at. Obviously, it would have been nice to hit the EDC tournament for them. … But I think they kind of said what they needed to say, and that’s it.”
Devils Lake played competitive games against fourth-place West Fargo and seventh-place Grand Forks Central earlier this season.
Had those games ended in different results, the Firebirds could be looking at adding another week to their season.
“It just seemed like one game our defense would be on, and then the next game it would be our offense — which our offense overall has improved tremendously,” Loegering said. “But I just think that as we’re coming through the season, it just was a matter of kind of piecing everything together. And a huge part of the game is pitching. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is really get our pitchers to have that endurance to really be able to hit their spots. And they — again, the score is not really showing it — but they’ve really improved in that area. And that’s what we’re hoping for. So hopefully, the next few seasons in the future, we won’t have to worry about pitching being an issue.”
The overall results were disappointing for Devils Lake this season.
But Loegering retained optimism when thinking about the seasons to come.
“I think we have the opportunity to be competitive,” she said. “I think with some of the younger group that we have coming up, we’ll be okay in the future.”
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