RENNER, S.D. — Just minutes after the literal storm subsided, the Devils Lake Storm struck on the first home run of Ben Larson’s career.
In the bottom of the second inning, with a 0-0 tie, strikes of lighting prompted a mandated 30-minute delay at Renner Ballpark. “Please take shelter,” the PA announcer abruptly noted.
Larson said the team kept things loose in the dugout.
“During that whole rain delay, we were all just kind of having fun,” he said. “Just kind of wondering what was going on, playing some baseball games with the opposing team.”
The Devils Lake coaches noticed the loose atmosphere, too. Coach Eric Nygaard said the boys were “cracking jokes like they normally do.”
The lightning and thunder eventually subsided into merely a light drizzle. So, after 34 minutes of sitting around and waiting — on a night that already had a 7:30 p.m. start — Larson stepped to the plate with two outs and nobody on.
“The six-hour bus ride and a little bit of a rain delay…I think we were just in a rush right away,” Nygaard said of his team, which made five outs among the first six batters. “And when you rush like that, the game just feels off.”
Nygaard recalled walking by Larson and Fausten Olson and saying, “You guys get a belt-high fastball, go and take a rip at it.” As a team, the Storm noticed that Dakota Valley pitcher Noah Graham had been up in the zone frequently.
“We knew we had to dial back in,” Larson said.
Larson got settled in and took a strike. Then he belted one deep into the dark gray sky, out towards the vast green farmlands that surround the quaint community of Renner.
“It felt incredible,” Larson said. “First one of my actual career, so it felt really great. It felt amazing off the bat. I didn’t really see it. I saw it go dead center, and I heard cheering, and that’s when I knew.”
It wasn’t a cheap shot, either. Larson hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark, where it’s 360 feet to straightaway center.
“You could just hear it off the bat,” Nygaard said. “And then once it gets out of the infield, we just kind of thought, ‘Oh, I think that’s got a chance.’”
And from there, Devils Lake had little issue getting the bats going. The players’ loose demeanor during the rain delay translated to the field, where the Storm (3-2) piled up 10 runs in four-plus innings in a 10-2 run-rule win over the Dakota Valley Panthers (2-5) on Friday.
It was Devils Lake’s first game of Sub-Pool B play in the 2026 Dakota Classic. With the win, the Storm secured at least second place in their sub-pool, as Dakota Valley lost twice on Friday. Devils Lake will battle Lincoln North Star on Saturday at 12 p.m. for first place in the sub-pool.
Mason Palmer held the fort on the mound in his first outing of the summer. He had a no-hitter through four innings, working around two walks and an error.
Max Palmer and Will Heilman knocked RBI hits in the third inning. Olson and Taydon Triepke, the eight- and nine-hole hitters, added two more RBI hits in the fourth — both with two outs — to extend the lead to 5-0.
Pitching through a bipolar cycle of lightning, sunshine and heavy rain, Mason Palmer let up in the fifth. After a one-out error, he surrendered his first hit on a well-struck, run-scoring triple to center field. Dakota Valley added a two-out double to cut Devils Lake’s lead to 5-2.
Palmer still struck out three in the inning. He collected 12 strikeouts in five mostly dominant frames of work. Both runs he allowed were unearned. He induced plentiful swings and misses, overpowering the majority of the hitters he faced and getting them off balance.
“He was throwing a lot of sliders low and away,” Nygaard said. “When he’s got a tight slider like that, it’s really tough to hit. So he did a nice job of using that outer half of the strike zone.”
Palmer helped himself out in the bottom half. He swatted a three-run homer to the opposite field, joining Larson in the home run party.
“That was incredible,” Larson said. “Especially as a super-senior, I’m glad I got to wake up the team and lead a little bit.”
Larson had an RBI hit in the fifth, followed by another knock from Triepke that walked it off via run rule.
Devils Lake was 10-for-23 with four walks overall. Max Palmer went 3-for-3 out of the two-hole, hitting the ball hard all evening.
Larson finished 2-for-3. He’s getting to hit in games for the first time since last summer, with his focus at Mayville State being on pitching.
It seems he’s remembered how to handle the bat.
“The first couple weeks were a little rough,” Larson said. “But I’ve been talking to Skip a lot, just kind of simplifying my swing a lot more. Just aim for hitting barrels, I guess. And it worked. So I’m gonna stick with it.”
Larson was all smiles as he rejoined his team in the dugout, concluding an eventful night where he hit his first dinger and scored the eventual walk-off run.
“It’s amazing. I’m so glad I get to have one more year with the boys,” Larson said. “They’re like my brothers. It’s amazing that I get one more year. I’m so happy.”
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