The Devils Lake A team split a doubleheader with the West Fargo Vets on Thursday at DLYA Field, losing 8-6 before winning 18-8 in six innings.
Here’s a look at what went well, what didn’t and the initial takeaways for this team.
Super-seniors Ben Larson and Hunter Remmick return, but not at their sharpest
There’s no doubt that having two right-handers like Larson and Remmick, who both pitched at the college level this spring, is valuable for a Legion squad.
They both made their summer debuts Thursday. Neither one was really at his sharpest.
Larson grinded through six innings. He surrendered two homers, one on the very first pitch of the game to Kaisen Nordick and another in the fourth inning to Lukas Grensteiner. He allowed at least one baserunner in every inning, including three consecutive doubles in the fourth that gave West Fargo a 5-1 lead.
Still, Larson struck out seven, only walked two and got through six innings on 111 pitches.
“Ben Larson, he threw well today,” Storm coach Eric Nygaard said after the game. “And if you go back and see the pitches that they hit, those were good pitchers’ pitches. And they just got the barrel to it and got it over our heads a little bit. Defensively, I think three of those balls probably could have been caught.”
Larson was ultimately charged with five runs (four earned) on nine hits in the loss.
Remmick started Game 2 and got tagged for four runs in the first inning. Like Larson, he surrendered a leadoff home run to Nordick. The first four Vets recorded hits against him. Devils Lake trailed 4-0 almost instantly.
Remmick went on to allow just a two-out single in the second inning and throw a perfect third. He struck out six batters in four innings.
He allowed four more runs in the fourth, but they were all unearned because of a leadoff error.
“In the first inning…I think he was just trying to get his bearings. He hadn’t been on the mound for probably a couple weeks,” Nygaard said. “But after that, you could see him just really start to pitch. And I think that’s something that his experience in the college level has really helped him in his first outing here. You started to see him pitch. And it wasn’t all fastballs; it was so many breaking balls, and then spotting those curveballs and things like that. So he was very effective.”
Fausten Olson working off the rust
Olson is the team’s third super-senior. Unlike Larson and Remmick, he didn’t play college ball.
So there’s a little more rust as he works back into game shape.
Olson played on Thursday, but only for the first three innings. He went 0-for-2 with two groundouts and made two putouts in center field. His reaction time looked slightly delayed, but he still carries a good amount of speed and covers ground.
Alex Hammond, who played center field for the spring team, took over for the rest of the evening. There was some speculation as to whether he was hurt, but he was just building back up to full stamina.
“It’s nice to have some guys that will compete for their positions, too,” Nygaard said. “Alex Hammond came off a good spring, and he does things well. And Fausten, I think we just kind of get him slowly acclimated to it. He didn’t play college baseball, so he’s just kind of working off some of his college extracurriculars, I suppose.”
Offense took a little bit to get going, but exploded once it did
For the first six innings of the day, Devils Lake had plenty of baserunners but only two runs to show for it.
The Storm ended up scoring 16 runs in the next three innings between Games 1 and 2. They scored 22 runs over the final seven innings of the night.
“We still hit the ball [in Game 1]. I think just a lot of those pitches were what we considered pitches that got themselves out,” Nygaard said. “And our approach in the second game was, if it’s not my pitch, I’m not going to swing at it.’”
Devils Lake scored six runs in each of the first two innings. The Storm totaled 14 hits and 10 walks, overwhelming six Vets pitchers with baserunners.
“I think we just had to get warmed up,” leadoff hitter Ben Brodina said. “We haven’t seen a lot of arm action with the rain. Haven’t had a lot of time to practice. But I think that first game was warmup, and seen some arm action, and we were ready to go that second game.”
Brodina’s grand slam in the second inning put an exclamation point on a downpour of runs. He completely pounced on a hanging curveball and rocketed it over the left-field fence.
“It was awesome,” Brodina said. “First pitch before that, he threw a curveball that hung, and I was like, ‘He’s throwing it again.’ And it just came around the plate, and I took a 1-2 hack and it went.”
The blast was Brodina’s first home run at the Legion A level.
“That was fun to see,” Nygaard said. “Find a pitch that you like to hit, and then take advantage of it. So that was a good approach by not just Ben, but all the players.”
Brodina went 4-for-5 with six RBIs in the the 18-8 win. Will Heilman was on base four times. Brody Rainsberry reached base three times. Every starter in the lineup reached at least once.
Taydon Triepke walked it off with a triple in the bottom of the sixth, securing the run-rule victory. He was on base four times out of the nine-hole.
The offense turned into a complete unit on Thursday, despite not really rallying until the seventh inning of Game 1.
The roster should be at full force in Sioux Falls
Devils Lake scored 24 runs in two games despite playing without Mason and Max Palmer, who were on vacation.
The Palmers are expected to be back by June 12, when the Storm compete in the Dakota Classic in the Sioux Falls, S.D., area. They’ll be competing in the Renner pool this year, with games played just north of the actual city of Sioux Falls.
In their absence, Rainsberry, Tayven Wiberg and Lakin Ronningen played the middle-infield positions.
“They’ve done a nice job,” Nygaard said. “If they’re not hustling down the line, or they’re throwing their helmet, their bat and things like that, we want to change the culture. And one of those things is keeping your composure, keeping your cool.”
With a week off, Devils Lake should have plenty of pitching to get through the tournament.
“And really, it’s so early,” Nygaard said. “We’ve got several starting pitchers. I think the thing that [head coach Jeff Carpenter] and I had talked about was who’s gonna do the relieving part of this. So we’ve got to find some guys that’ll get some innings on the mound if our starting pitchers struggle a little bit.”
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