BOTTINEAU — The Devils Lake Storm B team had a day to rest and get ready for Wednesday’s district semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed Velva.
But the No. 1-seeded Storm (21-9) made five errors and issued 11 walks as they fell 12-5 to the 39ers (22-8) at the Lumberyard. It ended Devils Lake’s 10-game winning streak.
“It just kind of seems like we didn’t get off the bus,” Storm head coach Parker Schmid said. “Some of us took yesterday too lazy, and kind of shot ourselves in the foot. Hopefully we get a nice little rest here between games and hopefully go get the next one.”
Talan Gregory got the start for Devils Lake.
He allowed only one run over his first three innings on the mound, but Velva ran his pitch count up to 63 with two walks and numerous foul balls. Gregory allowed a sacrifice fly in the first inning but struck out three in his first two frames of work.
Velva rallied for two runs in the top of the fifth to extend its lead to 3-0. The 39ers tallied a leadoff triple and executed a perfect bunt single amidst the rally.
Devils Lake took advantage of an error in the bottom half and scored two on a double by Jaxon Strong. The Storm had to settle for two, though, after Strong was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Then the wheels fell off a bit in the fifth. After three walks and a dropped popup, Gregory’s day on the mound came to an end. He threw 95 pitches, limiting Velva to four hits but walking six over four-plus innings.
“It’s all mental, it seems like,” Schmid said. “Whenever he throws a ball or the ump doesn’t call it his way, sometimes it kind of gets in his head a little bit. And you’ve just got to kind of wipe that and get the next pitch.”
Strong took over and issued a four-pitch walk to make it 5-2. He nearly escaped with no further damage, but with two outs, a botched ground ball and an additional error in the outfield cleared the bases. Velva had an 8-2 lead, and Devils Lake was left trying to scramble to stay in the game.
Velva scored four runs in the inning despite not recording a hit.
The Storm got one back on a sacrifice fly by Henley Driessen in the bottom of the fifth, capitalizing on Velva’s third error. But Devils Lake gave two runs right back in the sixth, committing a two-base throwing error on a pickoff attempt and a throwing error at third base. A two-out single ballooned the score to 11-3.
Strong led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and scored to make it 11-4.
Driessen pitched the final inning for Devils Lake and allowed a run created from an infield hit and a balk.
Andrew Hammond hit a sacrifice fly in the final frame for a final of 12-5. It was only Devils Lake’s second earned run against Cooper Kittleson, who threw a complete game on 90 pitches. He struck out four and only walked one.
“He’s a great pitcher. All credit to him,” Schmid said. “He’s got a really good curveball, and it seems like the curveball kind of threw us off guard a little bit.”
Velva advanced to Thursday’s district championship. Devils Lake moved to a 4 p.m. loser-out game Wednesday against either Cando or Rugby.
“We’ve just got to be more aggressive, I think,” Schmid said. “We’ve got to get a lot of first-pitch fastballs and put balls in play. Hopefully they make some errors, and we get some runners off that.”