WILLISTON — Devils Lake put itself in a very favorable position by winning the first two games of the Class A Legion baseball state tournament.
The Storm did so without using Will Heilman, Mason Palmer or Cayden McCarthy — the three pitchers who threw shutouts in the region tournament. They finally went back to the top of the rotation in Heilman on Saturday in the third round of the state tournament.
The two No. 1 seeds faced off — Devils Lake from the East and Valley City Post 60 from the West. Each team had won 16 games in a row.
Behind 12 hits and a complete game from Heilman, the Storm (30-7) cruised to a 12-3 win at Ardean Aafedt Stadium. Devils Lake bounced back from only scoring two runs on four hits the day prior, winning its 17th consecutive game. That streak started on July 6.
After stranding a Taydon Triepke leadoff walk in the first, Devils Lake scored in all five of its remaining offensive innings.
“Yesterday, it was a little rough. I mean, we got ‘em going, but it took a little time,” Triepke said. “Today in the first inning, we didn’t have too much going on. But then in the second inning, we got going, and our team really came together.”
Ben Larson, who went 3-for-3 with a hit by pitch out of the six-hole, singled with one out in the bottom of the second. Brody Rainsberry laid down his first of two bunt hits on the day — each of which got him an extra base after a throwing error by the third baseman.
“It really forced their defense to make some adjustments with that,” Devils Lake coach Eric Nygaard said. “And I think that’s just with his speed, you’ve got to rush your throw all the time. And it was very evident that the third baseman had to rush two of his throws. … Speed helps.”
Larson scored on a passed ball for the first run. Rainsberry got caught between third and home, and he appeared to be cut out to dry — but he outran the rundown and slid headfirst into home.
It was 2-0 Storm.
“That’s one of those things, just being aggressive,” Nygaard said. “Sometimes being fast will get you into a little bit of trouble, but he’s so fast he got himself out of that trouble, too. You can’t coach speed, boy.”
Heilman helped his own cause with a two-out RBI single in the third. Fausten Olson led off the fourth with a double, leading to RBI hits from Larson, Hunter Remmick and Triepke. Triepke then scored on a wild pitch. The four-run fourth made it 7-0.
“Once one guy shows that they can put the ball in play, it gives other players hope, too, I think,” Triepke said. “It’s good karma and just gets some momentum going.”
Meanwhile, Heilman held Valley City hitless through four innings. He walked two batters in the first but cruised from there, retiring eight straight. He struck out four batters the first time through the order.
Working with a seven-run cushion, Heilman got hit around a little in the fifth. The Royals rallied for two runs on four hits, including two doubles. Triepke started a relay in right field to cut down a runner at the plate and prevent further damage.
“We kind of changed our pitching, going at ‘em with that lead. We wanted to get ahead in the count so we don’t walk guys,” Nygaard said. “I think they ran into a couple of good pitches that Will threw. Even Ben [Brodina] came in and said, ‘I don’t know how that guy hit that ball into right-center.’”
Rainsberry’s second bunt hit and subsequent advance added a run in the bottom of the fifth. The Storm then batted around in the sixth — ignited by Triepke, who worked his second walk of the game. Through three games in this tournament, Triepke has reached nine times in 12 plate appearances out of the leadoff spot.
“Whatever works, as long as I’m in the game. I like stepping up,” Triepke said. “Walks are walks. Get on base. It’s fun.”
Heilman reached on a run-scoring error, while Larson, Rainsberry and Remmick added singles to bring in three more. It was Devils Lake’s second four-spot in a three-inning span, running the score up to 12-3 with three outs to get.
“Today was nice to see that first of all, we capitalized on their mistakes. And that’s kind of what our tendency has been, is to kind of capitalize on other people’s mistakes,” Nygaard said. “Today we actually had some runners in scoring position, and balls are being hit in the gap or just over the shortstop, over the second baseman. So it was nice to see that today.”
Valley City made three errors. Olson, Larson, Rainsberry and Remmick — the 5-8 hitters — combined to go 9-for-13 with a trio of free passes.
Heilman struck out a batter in a 1-2-3 seventh. He threw 89 pitches (61 strikes) while collecting seven strikeouts in his complete-game effort. He limited Valley City to five hits and two walks overall.
“He battled hard today,” Nygaard said.
Heilman’s summer on the mound concludes with just eight earned runs allowed in 47 innings, good for a 1.53 ERA.
And he’s far from the only weapon left in the holster for the Storm. Palmer and his 0.45 ERA, coming off a one-hit shutout in the region tournament, still await either Sunday or Monday’s opponent. Palmer has dealt with some elbow pain this summer but is expected to be healthy enough to throw.
“We kind of have our rotation; we talk nightly, and we kind of look at the matchups,” Nygaard said. “We want to make sure that we don’t go home without pitching Will and Mason.”
McCarthy is still available, too. He shut out Casselton Post 15 in the region tournament and has a 2.68 ERA this summer.
“Being able to get wins without those top three really helped us,” Nygaard said. “But we’ve still got to hit. We’ve still got to play defense behind them. We’ve got to do better baserunning. It’s not over yet. So we’ve just got to keep playing as a team, executing where we need to.”
Devils Lake plays Casselton on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in a rematch of the region championship game. The Storm need two wins while losing no more than once.
“We’re in the driver’s seat,” Triepke said. “So we should get it done. But we’ve still got to put our bat on the ball and field.”
Valley City moved to the losers’ bracket, where it will play at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Fargo Post 2 Jets.
Other scores from Saturday in Williston
Casselton 8, Williston Oilers 3
Fargo Post 2 Jets 7, Kindred 5