Drew Rerick/Photo by Noah Clooten
DEVILS LAKE — Even after the game was over, the question was on everyone’s minds: “Was he safe or out?”
The Firebirds had been struggling to get anything going against Fargo Davies’ Drew Rerick, one of the top MLB draft prospects in the country. Parker Brodina had given them probably their biggest opportunity yet, with a leadoff double in the seventh inning.
After a sacrifice bunt by Ben Larson, Devils Lake was 90 feet away from walking it off.
Stepping up to the plate with two outs was none other than freshman Will Heilman — who happens to be the Fargo fireballer’s cousin.
But Rerick had been pumping gas all night. He’d flown through the first six innings on just 87 pitches, striking out 12 in the process and holding Devils Lake scoreless. Two of those strikeouts belonged to Heilman.
“No offense to Will,” Devils Lake head coach Brent Luehring said, “but his two at-bats didn’t really give me anything that — not saying I don’t trust him, but, you know, freshman in that spot.”
So the Firebirds went to a bold play they’d actually considered in the fifth inning: a steal of home.
Brodina timed it almost perfectly. He caught Rerick off guard, sprinting towards the plate between pitches and attempting to slide under the catcher’s tag. But Rerick got it home in just enough time. Brodina was called out, and the game went to extra innings.
“I saw him just out of the corner of my eye,” Rerick said. “And I turned and fired it home.”
Brodina looked frustrated. There were grumbles from the Devils Lake fans.
And so a gripping pitchers’ duel, one that saw Mason Palmer nearly match the No. 155 draft prospect in the country (per Future Star Series), brought free baseball to Devils Lake. Despite an absolutely outstanding performance from Palmer, who held the Eagles off the board and struck out nine over the first seven innings, Rerick proved to be a tad too much for the Firebirds in the end.
Some bad luck in a wild eighth inning — which included an ejection, a helmet toss and profanity — gave Fargo Davies (17-8) a 3-0 edge over Devils Lake (15-8) on Tuesday. The showdown commenced in front of not just Devils Lake and Fargo Davies fans, but scouts from MLB teams like the Guardians and White Sox who showed up with their speed guns and notepads.
“You’re not gonna see this every day in North Dakota,” Luehring said. “You’re not gonna get to see a potential draft pick, an SEC kid. You gotta have fun with it. You can’t be intimidated. I don’t think our kids flinched once. Yeah, they maybe didn’t have the at-bats they wanted, but they competed, man.”
Rerick was dialed in from the start. Beau Brodina led off by drawing a full count, but he went down swinging. Palmer hit a single that deflected off the third baseman’s glove — but that would end up being the last Devils Lake hit until the sixth inning.
Early in the outing, Rerick leaned towards his fastball, which sits in the mid-90s and has reportedly reached 98 mph. The scouts behind home plate were just as locked in with their speed guns as Rerick was on the mound.
Making Rerick especially dangerous was the changeup he mixed in. It was hard enough for the Firebirds to catch up to the mid-90s heat, but they were all the more befuddled when he complemented his heat with the sinking change.
“The offspeed was working pretty good today,” Rerick said. “Getting that across for strikes. And the defense behind me made some good plays.”
Rerick used his fastball to overpower Devils Lake’s greatest power asset, Jackson Baeth. The Firebirds’ cleanup hitter struck out on fastballs his first two times up, then went down on a slider in the sixth inning with a runner on third and two outs. Baeth slammed his bat to the ground almost as fast as he’d swung at the pitch.
Rerick credited his slider as something that’s really helped elevate his game to the next level. He set Baeth up with the fastball, then put him away with the wrinkle.
“He obviously throws really hard, but his breaking stuff’s so fast,” Luehring said. “There probably is a big difference, but it’s still fast. He’s still sharp. And he can go to it in any count. He wasn’t afraid to throw it. You can just tell his confidence in his abilities.”
For the first few innings, Palmer’s stat line actually looked better than Rerick’s. The Firebirds had a baserunner in each of the first three innings — Palmer’s single, plus walks from Trason Beck and B. Brodina — while the Eagles only had a single through the same point in the game. Rerick was still leading Palmer in strikeouts, seven to four.
Davies finally got something going in the fourth and sixth innings. In the fourth, it was a single and a double back-to-back, putting two in scoring position with one out. But Palmer bore down and recorded two straight strikeouts, really harnessing the command of his curveball.
Then in the sixth, it was a single and a ground ball that scooted by P. Brodina — ruled an error — that put runners on the corners for Davies with one out. But yet again, Palmer came up huge with a strikeout, then ended the inning by inducing a popout. He continued to trade zeroes with Rerick nearly all evening.
“I think he was able to feed his curveball and his fastball off each other,” Luehring said. “Mason’s a competitor. The scene will never be too big for him. That’s why we went with him.”
Rerick even started to mix in a curveball, which he used to strike out an unsuspecting Larson in the fourth.
Palmer held steady with a perfect seventh. And, after the near walk-off where P. Brodina was nabbed at the plate, the game sailed on to extras.
It was only fitting that in a game with two tremendous pitching performances, the final result went towards the team that got a touch luckier. The eighth inning began similarly to the Firebirds’ half of the seventh, with a leadoff double and a bunt moving the runner to third.
Then Devils Lake pulled another bold move, but one that ultimately made sense: issuing two straight intentional walks to load the bases. It allowed the Firebirds to bypass Davies’ three-and-four-hole hitters, getting up to Brady Haiskanen, who’d struck out twice.
But the Eagles called on a pinch hitter, Cayden Neuharth. He dunked a blooper into shallow right field — it wasn’t hit hard at all, but it found the right spot. It was a base hit, finally scoring the game’s first run.
The Eagles were excited, and they weren’t shy about expressing their glee from the dugout. Andre Werk, the runner on second, must have used some choice language amidst the celebration, because the second-base umpire was quick to eject him from the game.
Werk was furious. He immediately began shouting at the umpire while making his way off the field. After getting out what he needed to say, he still wasn’t done, as he decided to fling his helmet towards the dugout. The Davies fans were emphatically supportive of him. One person audibly yelled, “Horrible umping! You’re a horsesh*t ump!”
Another bloop hit brought in a second run. Palmer recorded his 10th strikeout, but a hit by pitch drove in the third run of the frame and ended his evening.
Baeth stepped in to record the final out. The three runs stained Palmer’s overall line, but he still put up a fantastic 7 2/3 innings of work. He threw a whopping 124 pitches.
After all the commotion had settled, the attention diverted back to Rerick, who was still at 94 pitches. Max Palmer slapped a hit to right field, and with two outs, the red-hot Fausten Olson patiently grinded out a walk.
So Rerick came one out short of a complete-game masterclass. Still, the latter word could absolutely still be applied to describe his performance. He struck out 14 and limited Devils Lake to four hits, two of which didn’t leave the infield.
“Ninety-five percent of the guys in North Dakota are probably gonna look bad on him,” Luehring said. “And I thought we competed with the best we could be.”
Devils Lake will wrap up a successful regular season with its final home game on Thursday, when it takes on a struggling Valley City team at 5 p.m.
