FARGO — For the second time in the last three years, the Devils Lake baseball team fell one win short of the state tournament.
After Friday’s heroics to stay alive, the Firebirds couldn’t maintain their magic Saturday at Jack Williams Stadium. No. 7 seed Devils Lake completed its season with a 12-11 record after losing 4-1 to the defending state champion, No. 5 seed West Fargo Sheyenne (18-13).
“I thought that we had a really nice year,” Devils Lake head coach Brent Luehring said. “I’m not a big goal-setting guy. I always think as long as you can keep extending your season as long as you can, that should be the goal, no matter what the expectations are. But for us to get to day three and compete against one of the better teams in our league.”
The big blow was a Landon Zink three-run homer in the fifth inning, but the larger issue was Devils Lake recording just two hits and scoring one unearned run against right-hander Hudson Henrich.
Will Heilman struck out seven while allowing three runs on five hits for Devils Lake. He was good, but Henrich outlasted him, throwing a complete game on 104 pitches. Henrich only had three strikeouts, but most of the balls hit against him found gloves.
“I thought Will threw the ball well,” Luehring said. “We just didn’t have a timely hit, kind of like some other nights. … It didn’t end the way we wanted it to.”
The game was a 0-0 pitchers’ duel for the first four innings.
Heilman had to contend with three one-out baserunners between the first and second inning. He got out of both situations with back-to-back strikeouts, giving him four through two scoreless frames.
Devils Lake didn’t record a hit in the first two innings against Henrich. In the top of the third, Tayven Wiberg reached on an error, and Ben Brodina lined a single to break the no-hit bid, but the Firebirds stranded two in scoring position.
Taydon Triepke hit a two-out double the other way in the fourth. Sheyenne right fielder Jake Dangerud made a diving catch to rob Easton Kraft of a go-ahead hit, keeping the game scoreless.
“It just felt like we hit a lot of balls hard right at guys,” Luehring said. “And that’s baseball. [Henrich] did a good job keeping us off balance, and felt like we hit his pitches rather than ours, but it is what it is. I can think of Easton — he had three line drives and nothing to show for it.”
Heilman issued two walks through the first four innings — and both were to Jevan McMenamy. He induced a chase for his sixth strikeout to end the fourth.
The Firebirds cracked first on a gift of a run from Sheyenne. With two outs in the top of the fifth, shortstop Max Zenker made a low throw that allowed Alex Hammond to score from second. Hammond had walked to lead off the inning.
With Devils Lake up 1-0, the Mustangs finally got to Heilman in the bottom of the fifth. Jack Boehm doubled to put runners on second and third, and Zink, the leadoff hitter, cranked an opposite-field homer into the trees.
Sheyenne went up 3-1 in a flash.
Heilman allowed another double in the frame but Zenker strayed too far off second base and got thrown out to help Heilman navigate through the inning with no further damage.
“Will’s a competitor,” Luehring said. “He did his best for us, and that’s all we can ask for. We just didn’t give him enough runs.”
Brodina pitched the sixth and issued back-to-back walks. Zink struck again, hitting a two-out RBI single to add an insurance run. Zink had all four Sheyenne RBIs.
Henrich retired the final seven Devils Lake batters.
It was a sour ending, but the Firebirds still finished with a winning record a year after graduating an especially talented senior class. The two other towns of their size in the Eastern Dakota Conference — Wahpeton and Valley City — have both struggled recently, with Wahpeton at the bottom of the region and Valley City moving down to Class B. But Devils Lake has been right in the mix with the Fargo-dominated conference.
“I think that’s just a testament to the program we’ve built,” Luehring said. “And the kids that play in the summer and spend time making their game better, and investing time in our Legion program and investing time in the offseason. I think that’s kind of the expectation here, is to make that EDC tournament and finish as high as you can.”
Honors
Devils Lake senior pitcher and shortstop Mason Palmer was named to the all-EDC team.
During the regular season, Palmer batted .381 with a 1.014 OPS and a team-high 24 hits. He pitched to a 2.00 ERA (per nine innings) over 27 innings. He struck out 41 batters and allowed just six walks.
In the postseason, Palmer added seven innings with no earned runs and eight strikeouts. He also reached base five times in 10 plate appearances.
Mason and his twin brother Max will be playing baseball for Jamestown after the upcoming summer Legion season.
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