WILLISTON — The last pitch Taydon Triepke threw in his baseball career turned into the last ball Mason Palmer would catch wearing a Devils Lake uniform.
The last of thousands upon thousands of balls thrown and received in 18 years across three sports.
After securing the catch, Palmer celebrated a state championship with his lifelong teammates.
“Definitely closing the book,” he said. “But we couldn’t have gone out in a better way. We’ve been playing together for so long, it’s just unreal. We knew the type of chemistry we had, and we knew we had enough to get it done this year. We just had to do it, and we finally did it. And starting a new chapter, going off to college and other players going off to college, I think this is a great way to end the career.”
For Mason and his twin brother Max, it was the last time suiting up for Devils Lake.
For others on the team, it was the last baseball game, period.
Devils Lake baseball will say goodbye to a whole crew of players who defined the ascension of the program.
“It’s sad to say, but I think this is the end of an era for the baseball program,” said super-senior Fausten Olson, who played his final baseball game last Monday. “I mean, not forever, obviously. But it’s definitely gonna take a special group to do what we did.”
Some of this year’s Devils Lake Storm, including the Palmers, were part of the school’s state basketball championship in 2024 that ended a 99-year drought. The same goes for Devils Lake’s first ever state football title in 2025.
While they’d had success in baseball — making state Legion in 2024 and 2025 — they were missing a landmark achievement on the diamond compared to what they’d done in other sports. The older portion of this team won a 15U state championship, but at the Legion level, Devils Lake hadn’t won a state title since 1984.
“The guys on this roster, look how many state tournaments they’ve been a part of,” Storm coach Eric Nygaard said. “The state championship in basketball, last year in state football; so they kind of used that experience, too, to be on a bigger stage.”
In 2025, the Storm made it all the way to the last day of the state tournament. Mason Palmer threw a perfect game in that run. But they didn’t win the whole thing.
The 2025 Storm took a 4-3 loss to Casselton Post 15 and a 9-7 loss to the Fargo Post 2 Jets as they made their exit.
“Back then, we were close, but we didn’t get ‘er done,” Triepke said. “But I think this year, we were really close and we have a lot of talent on the team. And we all came together and got the job done.”
Devils Lake beat the Jets twice in this year’s state tournament to go all the way.
“It feels awesome. Last year, we choked, and it was really sad,” super-senior Hunter Remmick said. “I have mixed feelings. Done playing with the boys; feels really great.”
Olson, Remmick and Ben Larson rejoined the team after completing their freshman years of college for their final summer of Storm baseball. The Palmers and Triepke will be aging out. This was the last chance for this core of players to finish what they’d started.
“It was definitely one of my biggest goals, from when I started Legion ball, was to win this,” Mason Palmer said, “because summer ball is just a time to go have fun with your friends and compete.”
Behind a battle-tested, experienced group, Devils Lake won 19 of its last 20 games. The Storm went over a month without losing a game, and lost just once after July 1. Their title run featured a 32-8 overall record.
“Some of us, we’ve been playing together since we were 10 years old,” Larson said. “Been playing baseball for forever, and always been together. Win, lose together. We’re just a family, and it’s awesome to end this way.”
After falling short last year, this Devils Lake team was able to get over the hump.
So what was the difference? What made this Storm team special?
“It was a brotherhood,” senior Landon Sundeen said. “We came together. There was more energy. Like, on the bus rides, there was a speaker going, and it was fun. And we were more relaxed. We came together more because everybody knew there was eight seniors. It’s the last year. We’ve got to go out on a bang. Everybody came together as one family. Really, that’s what it came down to.”
Devils Lake’s lineup was a strength all summer. The team hit a collective .347 with a .451 OBP and a .932 OPS. Those are strong numbers for a single player, let alone a whole team.
It became a group that was solid one-through-nine, with no real weak spots. In fact, there were usually more good players than spots available. Remmick, Ben Brodina, Cayden McCarthy or Tayven Wiberg often got the short end of the stick, being squeezed out of the starting nine despite being worthy of a spot. Look a little deeper on the bench, and you’d find talented players like Sundeen and Alex Hammond. Lakin Ronningen didn’t get many at-bats but frequently filled in as a courtesy runner. Easton Kraft and Jaxon Strong joined the bench for the state tournament.
Devils Lake had to mix and match things, game by game.
“We had a lot of guys that could play anywhere,” Mason Palmer said. “Everyone was a good athlete. Everyone could hit the ball. Everyone could field the ball.”
Devils Lake’s pitching hit some speed bumps, mostly early in the season. Palmer and Remmick dealt with health issues. Larson took more time to settle in than he had last summer. Brody Rainsberry wasn’t quite as big a part of the rotation.
But it was a robust, deep pitching staff, which paid off in the end. Palmer and Remmick stayed healthy enough to start each of the two championship games, respectively. Will Heilman was consistently strong over a large sample of innings. McCarthy came into his own. Larson improved as the summer went on. Rainsberry and Wiberg provided contributions when necessary.
“We had a lot of pitchers. I think that’s what really helped, too, was our arm talent on the mound,” Palmer said. “We were really deep, and I think we had a sound defense. And I think if our pitchers can just throw strikes and our defense can make plays, I think we can hold teams to a low amount of runs and let the bats do the talking on the other side. I think that’s what worked this week.”
Devils Lake had a team ERA over 6.00 in the middle of the season but got that number down to 4.23 by the end. The Storm didn’t allow a single run in the region tournament. By some miracle, they remained unbeaten going into the final day of the state tournament without using Palmer.
The game Palmer pitched didn’t go exactly as planned, but the Storm still had Remmick in the holster. The Jets had good pitching, too, and they put up a fight, but even the defending state champions weren’t as deep as Devils Lake.
“I think everything came together at the right time — pitching, hitting and also just how much talent we have on this team,” said Rainsberry, who started Game 1 of the state tournament and was the No. 7 hitter in the lineup. “It forced us to compete against each other and compete for that spot. And I think that really made everybody better.”
Devils Lake’s 18-game winning streak ended at an inopportune time: the first state championship game. The Storm had seven hits and two walks while only striking out twice, but they scored just once in a 3-1 loss. They left at least one runner on base in every inning.
But they scored six runs over their final two innings of the day, winning 8-4 to claim the trophy.
“I think just not giving up every day and just making the most of every opportunity we had,” Olson said of what gave this team the edge. “I know in that first [championship] game, we didn’t make the most of our opportunities, and that cost us that game. And this [second] game, everyone stepped up and did their job, and it was great.”
For the second straight year, Devils Lake made it to the final day.
But unlike last year, the players didn’t have to leave the field dissecting another tough loss.
“Our team this year, we’ve been so resilient. We’ve been so determined,” Larson said. “This was our end goal from day one. Being in state last year and the year before and losing out just pushed us this year to know how much we want it.”
And now, for many of them, a childhood marked by baseball has ended.
“It’s really sad. We won’t really see each other again,” Triepke said. “So getting it done and winning state, it’s the best outcome that could be.”
As cheers rained down on the field — along with some actual drops of precipitation — the Storm players celebrated their championship with hugs and backflips. There were exasperated, victorious cries of jubilation. Gloves went flying. Happy tears were shed. And maybe some sad ones, too.
A few moments later, Jackson Baeth joined the huddle. Baeth was on the bench as a coach for this tournament, but he played with a lot of these kids only a couple years earlier. Baeth can be considered part of this core, too. He was a big reason Devils Lake made state in 2024, the first major stepping stone for a program that just got over the peak of winning a state championship.
He finally got to celebrate with his friends.
“Definitely a chapter ending, and for Devils Lake baseball,” said Remmick. “Great couple years with the boys, and it’s gonna be sad not playing with them anymore.”
Added Olson: “It’s the best it could have been.”