Devils Lake is back.
Following a historic basketball season that saw the boys and girls win championships, the Firebirds returned in a different sport on Friday: baseball. After their home opener was postponed earlier in the week, they made a trip down to Mandan to face the Mandan Braves in a doubleheader. Six of Devils Lake’s nine starters were members of the championship basketball team.
It was truly a tale of two games. The Firebirds lost the opener 3-1, but burst out offensively in the nightcap and won 14-5. They split the season’s first doubleheader ahead of Saturday’s doubleheader against Bismarck.
The top performers were Parker and Beau Brodina, who each reached base four times on the day. Parker also contributed a strong pitching performance in the nightcap — a game in which nearly the entire offensive lineup chipped in.
Mandan got going in the second inning of Game 1 against starting pitcher Ben Larson. Back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning put the Braves on the board. A single later in the inning got by left fielder B. Brodina — an error that allowed another run to score and gave Mandan a 2-0 lead.
The Firebirds had just a walk in each of the first two innings. Leadoff batter Fausten Olson recorded their first hit of the year in the third, reaching on an infield single.
Larson was taken out for Hunter Remmick after two innings. He allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and a walk while striking out one.
P. Brodina had Devils Lake’s first hit to the outfield, but offense continued to be hard to come by for the Firebirds. Mason Oster and Tate Olson each pitched three scoreless innings for Mandan. B. Brodina worked a long at-bat with a runner on second in the fifth, but it ended up in a popout to the pitcher.
Catcher Trason Beck caught a runner stealing to end the bottom of the fifth, helping keep Devils Lake within a pair.
The Firebirds put two runners on in the sixth after P. Brodina collected his second hit of the game and Larson was hit by a pitch. But Beck got unlucky, ripping one down the left field line that was snagged by the third baseman.
The Braves added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth — though it could have been worse if not for a nice relay pulled off by center fielder Olson and shortstop Mason Palmer.
Remmick wound up throwing four innings of one-run ball in relief. But the Firebirds couldn’t get anything in the seventh. The four hits and four walks they collected throughout the game were only good for one run. Their pitching in Game 1 was fine for the most part, but it was an underwhelming start offensively.
That narrative changed in a hurry.
The Firebirds’ 14-5 bashing started with a three-run first inning. B. Brodina got things going with a single; then Palmer and P. Brodina each reached on a miscue. Brodina was credited with a “double,” though it was a ball that should have been caught in shallow left-center. The hit brought in two runs, and Larson added another on an RBI single.
The Braves got two back in the bottom of the first on errors by third baseman Jackson Baeth and second baseman Max Palmer. It was a sloppy start with P. Brodina on the mound, though not due to any fault of Brodina’s.
Devils Lake led 3-2.
The Firebirds tacked on one run in each of the next two innings. B. Brodina lined an RBI single in the second, and Beck hit a sacrifice fly in the third after an error by the shortstop put runners on the corners.
P. Brodina kept the Braves without an earned run in the first three innings. The only Mandan baserunner in the second or third inning came on an error by the first baseman.
Max Palmer led off by the fourth inning by reaching on yet another error. B. Brodina recorded an infield hit, and Mason Palmer drove in a run with a single. Baeth made it 7-2 with a sacrifice fly. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases, but Beck flew out to right and the Firebirds had to settle for a two-run frame.
After a bunt hit to lead off the bottom of the fourth, P. Brodina found himself getting a little wild. He issued back-to-back one-out walks to load the bases, and all three runs came in — the first on a wild pitch, and the next two on a double. Mandan was still in it, Devils Lake leading 7-5.
Both teams were held in check in the fifth and sixth. P. Brodina finished six very strong innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits and three walks. He struck out five.
It was still a two-run game, but a disaster seventh inning for Mandan put the Firebirds in cruise control. The first two batters of the inning reached on errors, which set the tone for the way the inning was about to go.
Devils Lake played some small ball, moving runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt and getting a run in on a bunt single from Max Palmer. Olson reached on an error by the third baseman that brought in two more runs. Mason Palmer hit a two-run single off the shortstop’s glove which brought in yet another pair. The wheels were suddenly spinning at a rapidly accelerating pace.
And then the screws detached entirely, and Mandan’s hopes of sweeping the doubleheader tumbled in a frenzy down the hill. Baeth smashed a ball to deep left that sailed over the wall for Devils Lake’s first home run of the year — a two-run shot that spread the icing on an already tasty cake. It was a seven-run inning and a nine-run game now, and the Firebirds had all but secured their first victory of 2024.
Mandan committed four errors in the inning and eight in the game. After a fundamentally sound opener, the Braves played a messy nightcap that just got uglier as it went on.
The 5-foot-8 Max Palmer came in to pitch the seventh inning. He might be small, but he recorded three strikeouts in the inning — the first looking, and the other two swinging. It helped him work around a hit by pitch and a walk to throw a scoreless frame and send the Firebirds home happy.
