Beau Brodina, Max Palmer/Photo by Noah Clooten
GRAND FORKS — The Firebirds didn’t take long to shake off their first loss since their season-opening road trip.
Devils Lake baseball (10-5) won its eighth game in its last nine games, pummeling Grand Forks Central (1-10) by a score of 12-0 at Montgomery Field on Monday. The Knights were ugly defensively, and the Firebirds found a variety of ways on base, just like they’ve been doing during this entire streak of success. Mason Palmer pitched all six innings on the mound.
“I actually don’t think we played overly well, but I’ll take a 12-0 win in the EDC,” Luehring said. “Mason did a great job, threw the ball over the plate. We made plays behind him.”
The Knights played fundamentally disastrous baseball from the beginning. Beau Brodina led off with a triple to left-center, and Fausten Olson singled him home before an out had been recorded. An error and a walk loaded the bases, and Parker Brodina was hit by a pitch to drive in a run. Ben Larson, the sixth batter of the game, finally made the first out.
The Central shortstop’s second error of the inning allowed two more runs to score. With the bases loaded, Max Palmer laid down a perfect squeeze bunt, and nobody covered first base, so yet another run scored. B. Brodina drew a bases-loaded walk in his second plate appearance of the inning, and Devils Lake had a 6-0 lead before Mason Palmer even threw a pitch.
“I’ve done a lot of research on GameChanger and just talking to some coaches about, if you force the issue against that team, you should be okay,” Luehring said. “And I mean, that’s the way we play the game, is bunting and running.”
They added another run in the second inning on a Trason Beck sacrifice fly. Jackson Baeth walked for the second time in as many innings, as Central wanted no part of the slugger with an OPS over 1.200. P. Brodina singled to set things up for Beck.
Olson kept his hot bat going in the third inning, with his second of three hits on the day. Olson had been struggling, but he now has a pair of three-hit performances in his last three games.
“I’ve been really working with him, trying to get him to stay balanced, and better hitting posture — not so front-heavy,” Luehring said. “Just the way we take pitches and see pitches. And he’s really buying into it.
A dropped throw by the first baseman put two on for Baeth, but he popped out in his first official at-bat of the day.
Palmer’s command wasn’t perfect, but he worked around a baserunner in each of the first three innings, with a strikeout in each frame. He started to land his breaking ball with more consistency by the fourth inning.
“I don’t think he had a good feel. It’s a little colder out,” Luehring said. “When his breaking stuff is on, it’s really, really sharp and good… I’m just happy he kept throwing the ball over the plate and competing.”
The Firebirds’ offense slowed down in the middle innings, but they tacked on two in the fifth and three in the sixth to secure the run-rule victory.
B. Brodina and Baeth both had infield hits in the fifth. Olson made a heads-up play to score all the way from second base on Baeth’s knock. Leading 9-0, they stranded the bases loaded and had to play at least another inning.
But they took care of business in the sixth. Palmer contributed to his own cause with a two-run single. Ben Larson drew a bases-loaded walk, and the Knights committed two more errors, leading to a three-run frame despite only one hit. Central totaled six errors on the day.
In the end, Palmer allowed just two hits and struck out six in his complete-game effort. He threw 97 pitches, 61 of which were strikes.
The Firebirds weren’t immune to messy defense of their own. In the bottom of the sixth, catcher Beck threw to second base with nobody covering. It left Luehring with a critical taste in his mouth after the game, feeling like there’s still some areas to clean up despite how dominant a 12-0 score looks on paper.
“Communication,” Luehring said was the main thing. “I mean, we gotta know we’re not holding the guy on, up 12-0 with two balls and the play’s at [first base]. They didn’t talk… Against a team that’s competitive, that can hurt you.”
Devils Lake is scheduled to play a doubleheader against Fargo South (2-1) on the road Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. The Firebirds will try to keep these well-rounded efforts going.
“I’ll take it any way we can get it,” Luehring said. “Twelve-nothin’. I know we probably didn’t play our cleanest game, but I’m not gonna complain.”
