Ava Beck/Photo by Noah Clooten
GRAND FORKS — After nearly two weeks without a game, the Devils Lake softball team returned with authority on a sunny Thursday evening towards the eastern edge of North Dakota.
The Firebirds (4-4) are still under the leadership of interim head coach Jenna Windjue after Courtney Loegering underwent surgery. The Windjue-led crew rode some hot bats, taking down Grand Forks Central (2-12) by a score of 14-3 at Apollo Park.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time just going over the fundamentals again,” Windjue said. “Making sure we’re doing things right. Making sure the girls are getting a lot of good cuts in, hitting-wise, so that we’re prepared for, mostly, our EDC games coming up next week.”
Despite the lengthy break, this contest threw them right back into the fire — fitting, given their team name — with the first of four games in a three-day span. They’re headed to Fargo on Friday for three games in two days as part of North Dakota’s “Midseason Madness,” and then they have three more games against EDC opponents during the week to finish the regular season.
As of now, they’re having to do it without their usual head coach. But Windjue has already found a way to settle into her new role.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said. “The girls have been really good about working with me, and we make minor adjustments as we go. But Courtney has a good program; we have a good back — so it was pretty easy to just slide in and keep going.”
As has been the case in many of Devils Lake’s wins, senior pitcher Calin Boline was a major key to success. She threw all seven innings and allowed just one earned run.
That run came on a two-out single in the bottom of the first. A leadoff double and a hit batter immediately put her in trouble, and she nearly got out of it with some soft contact, but couldn’t quite prevent the damage. Devils Lake trailed 1-0.
The Firebirds’ offense, after leaving two runners on in the first inning, put up a four-spot in the second. After back-to-back hits, they loaded the bases on a fielder’s choice where the Central shortstop threw to third but failed to record an out. Two runs scored on a hard ground ball that Riley Remmick hit past the shortstop, and another pair came in on a Tylie Brodina triple to the right-center field gap.
“We got our bats going right away, which was kind of our plan, our goal,” Windjue said. “They did an awesome job… The whole team just carried off everyone’s back. It was really a good performance all around.”
Devils Lake added three more in the fourth. Taylor Leben got things started with a double, and she scored on an infield hit that Brodina hustled out. Boline helped her own cause with a two-run double, stretching the lead to 7-1.
In the circle, Boline settled in. Her defense had a brief spout of sloppiness behind her in the fourth, when the Firebirds’ left side of the infield combined to make three errors in the span of two batters. It led to a pair of unearned runs, but Boline still made some important pitches to limit the damage.
“Calin has been solid for us all year,” Windjue said. “She bounces back. She knows what to throw. Her and [catcher] Ava [Beck] just work together, and they do great things.”
Beck led off the fifth inning with her third hit in as many at-bats. In addition to working with Boline behind the plate, Beck reached base four times on Thursday and scored three runs.
“I just watched the ball, and I wasn’t in my head,” Beck said. “And my dad was here supporting me, so it helped.”
Beck came around to score on an RBI double by Remmick, giving Devils Lake an 8-3 lead. She began another rally in the seventh, leading off with a walk in what became a six-run outburst. Brodina picked up her third hit with an RBI single, and Boline collected her second extra-base hit of the evening with a forceful two-run triple. Boline tallied four RBIs on the day, while Brodina had three.
Now holding an 11-run lead, Boline came back to the circle and picked up where she left off. She allowed just a two-out single in the seventh, recording a strikeout in the process as she finished off the game stress-free.
“She really hit some outside pitches, and did what she needed to do,” Beck said.
The battery of Boline-Beck has been a linchpin of this team’s success. The freshman-senior mix has worked well, with the two developing a trusting relationship that allows Boline to pitch in as relaxed and confident a state as possible.
“We’ve just got a good bond,” Beck said. “And I can tell her anything without her getting her feelings hurt.”
That duo will be critical as the team keeps rolling over the next week. A dry stretch of games — due in part to a very not-dry pattern of weather — is about to morph into a busy schedule very quickly, full of long travels and quality opponents.
It’s as critical a point as ever in the season.
“I want to keep the bats going,” Windjue said. “Making sure that we’re having confidence at the plate, because that’s what’s gonna carry us into EDC moving forward. And just working on those fundamentals.”
Devils Lake plays Kindred-Richland at the North Softball Complex in Fargo at 1 p.m. on Saturday, then Grafton at 5 p.m., then Williston at noon the next day.
