WILLISTON — Baseball can be an unpredictable game.
Devils Lake went into the Class A Legion baseball state tournament with just about everything going right. Fourteen wins in a row. Robust hitting all summer. Dominant pitching as of late. The No. 1 seed in the East.
The Williston Oilers, on the other hand, were only in this tournament by virtue of being the host. They lost twice in their region tournament, and had taken eight losses in their last nine games. They were the No. 4 seed from the West.
And yet, the Storm were losing going into the fourth inning of Thursday’s first-round matchup at Ardean Aafedt Stadium.
“The slow start was worrisome,” Devils Lake coach Eric Nygaard said. “But if you look back, the whole year, some of our starts are slow. But we’re just kind of piecing it together.”
Despite not capitalizing on multiple early opportunities, and letting Williston strike first in a two-run second inning, Devils Lake (28-7) proved to be too much for the Oilers (16-19-1) to handle in a 15-hit attack, winning 12-2. The Storm took the lead in the fourth and put the hammer down with a seven-run fifth inning. They walked it off via run rule with two in the sixth.
“We definitely didn’t expect a rough start. We wanted to come out going,” said Cayden McCarthy, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs. “The rough start kind of scared a lot of people. But we ended up finishing it.”
Brody Rainsberry and Tayven Wiberg combined to throw all six innings for Devils Lake.
“Fortunately, they put a game together,” Nygaard said. “Brody struggled a little bit, but Tayven came in, threw some strikes, kept them off balance.”
An inauspicious beginning
The Storm opted to start Rainsberry and save pitchers like Will Heilman, Mason Palmer and Ben Larson.
Rainsberry grinded through his outing to keep Devils Lake in the game, but he didn’t have his best control. He issued a leadoff walk in each of the first two innings. A 4-6-3 double play got him out of the first, but Williston scored two runs in a laborious, 33-pitch top of the second.
A pair of walks set the table, and Williston got RBI singles from Maddex Nickoloff and Connor Budd. The latter hit came with two outs. Rainsberry recorded a strikeout to strand the bases loaded with no further damage.
In the bottom of the first, Devils Lake had two runners in scoring position, but a key strikeout of Heilman helped Oilers starter Huntley Sorenson get out of it. Rainsberry got to second base with one out in the bottom of the second, but Sorenson induced back-to-back groundouts.
“I think we were a little overconfident,” McCarthy said. “And it definitely didn’t show right away.”
Mason Palmer got Devils Lake off the scheid. He muscled an opposite-field RBI double to make it 2-1 in the third inning. But Fausten Olson, batting with a runner on third with two outs for the second time in the game already, struck out.
Rainsberry threw a quick third inning but got into trouble again after issuing two straight walks to the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the fourth. His evening ended there. He threw 35 strikes and 37 balls, walking five in 3 2/3 innings of work. He struck out four batters and limited Williston to three hits.
“We talked to him to just try to pitch to a zone,” Nygaard said. “He struggled with that a little bit, but overall he ate up some innings for us.”
This was Rainsberry’s first pitching appearance since July 10.
“He’s a big part of our pitching staff, and we needed to get him on the mound and get some experience,” Nygaard said. “And unfortunately, we used him a little bit too much for coming back later in the tournament. But we knew that Tayven was gonna come in and relieve him.”
Taking over the lead
Wiberg could have inherited an even more dire jam, had catcher Ben Brodina not thrown out a runner trying to steal second before Rainsberry’s two walks.
Budd greeted Wiberg with a single — but Taydon Triepke started a 9-1-2 relay to hold the deficit at one.
Then the Storm got to work in the bottom of the fourth.
Larson, who’d hit into an unlucky lineout earlier in the game, led off with a single. A hit by Hunter Remmick put runners on the corners with one out.
McCarthy, the No. 9 hitter, wasted no time. He went first-pitch hacking, and smashed it out to right-center for a go-ahead two-run double.
“My approach is just put it in play, really, and see the ball and drive it up the middle,” McCarthy said. “And I got an inside fastball and hit it to the gap, so can’t ask for much more.”
Devils Lake loaded the bases against reliever Eli Lee but couldn’t cash in any extra runs.
Another outfield assist got Wiberg through the top of the fifth. With a man on second and two outs, the Williston runner slipped and fell while rounding third. Devils Lake eventually retired him on an 8-1-5-2 rundown.
“We had just put that in this week, too, just to review some of those things like rundowns between first and third, third and home, that type of thing,” Nygaard said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when things don’t go our way, but it’s the one thing that we just have to get back to our kind of baseball.”
Blowing it open
Still leading just 3-2, an Olson leadoff walk got Devils Lake going in the bottom of the fifth. Olson was still on second base with two outs, Williston an out away from keeping it a one-run game.
Lee fell behind 3-0 on Remmick. The Oilers opted to intentionally walk him to get to McCarthy, who’d already come through in a big spot.
He came through in another big spot.
“It puts a spark in me,” McCarthy said of Williston intentionally walking Remmick. “Them walking Hunter and then putting me at the plate, that really kind of fueled me.”
McCarthy popped one into left field for a fortunate base hit. It was a line drive in the box score, driving in two runs to give McCarthy four RBIs on the day. It opened up Devils Lake’s lead to 5-2.
“He’s been working his butt off on his hitting, on his swing,” Nygaard said. “He’s starting to kind of figure it out a little bit, too. So he hits balls that he likes to hit, and not a pitcher’s pitch. So, really proud of him. He came up big.”
And when it rained, it poured for the Oilers. Triepke kept the rally going with his third hit of the game. Devils Lake’s leadoff hitter reached base all five times he came to the plate on Thursday. He was 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch.
Max Palmer added a two-run double. Heilman, who’d just missed a home run earlier in the game, absolutely tattooed a ball over the left-field fence for a two-run shot.
Heilman’s bomb made it 10-2. It was his third and the team’s 17th home run of the summer. Just like that, this game was the blowout the Storm might have been expecting coming in.
RBI singles from Alex Hammond and Max Palmer ended the game automatically in the bottom of the sixth.
Wiberg ultimately pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. He threw 33 pitches (18 strikes). He struck out two, walked two and allowed three hits.
Through one day, Devils Lake still has a boatload of pitchers available for the rest of the tournament. Early indications, as of Thursday night, suggest the team is planning to use Larson on the mound Friday against the East No. 3 seed, the Fargo Post 2 Jets.
“He’s gonna fill up the strike zone and do his job, and we’re gonna work for him,” McCarthy said. “So let’s go get one tomorrow.”
The game is set for 4 p.m. Friday, July 31.
Miscellaneous notes
- The Oilers’ head coach is Mark LaCroix, who was recently hired to be Lake Region State College’s new baseball coach. So on Thursday, LaCroix coached against one of his future players in Hunter Remmick. With the loss, Williston moved to a losers-bracket game Friday at 12:30 p.m. against the Bismarck Senators.
- Devils Lake added Easton Kraft and Jaxon Strong to its roster from the B team, which had its season end with a loss in the District 3 championship. B team coaches Parker Schmid and Jackson Baeth joined the bench as well.
Other first-round scores from Thursday in Williston
- Valley City 8, Kindred 7
- Fargo Post 2 Jets 10, Bismarck Senators 1
- Casselton 9, Minot Metros 2