Another sports season has come and gone, this time of the baseball variety.
Unlike the basketball season, Devils Lake didn’t win a championship this time. Playing with many of the same kids, the Firebirds took an exit in the EDC tournament last weekend.
But they still turned in a valiant effort and a strong campaign. Here are some final takeaways as the spring transitions into summer.
The program has taken real strides
Head coach Brent Luehring said that one thing he tells his seniors is to leave the program better than they found it.
For Jackson Baeth and Beau Brodina, that was certainly accomplished.
When they were freshmen, Devils Lake went 5-17 overall. As sophomores, the team was a better 6-8, but still didn’t make the EDC tournament.
Last year, they snuck into the EDC field as the No. 8 seed with a 6-10 record. But they went two and out, falling 9-3 and 2-0.
So for this team to be competing among the best teams in the state — most of which hail from the much larger Fargo — is some serious progress.
During the regular season, the Firebirds swept a doubleheader over Fargo North, the team that ended their season in the EDC tournament last year. They also swept a doubleheader over West Fargo Sheyenne, the three-time defending champion. They comfortably made the field as the No. 4 seed and even got to host a playoff game.
And, as Luehring noted, they were the preseason No. 9. They weren’t even projected to make the bracket at all. They proved people wrong and forced opposing teams to take them a little more seriously.
Even in the latest iteration of the EDC tournament, they were right there with Sheyenne during a rainy 5-3 loss and a rollercoaster 10-6 loss to West Fargo Horace. In the middle of those two games, they beat Fargo South 6-2 — an accomplishment in its own right, winning an EDC tournament game to get to a state qualifier.
So what exactly went wrong in those losses?
The cards didn’t fall in Devils Lake’s favor during the competitive, weather-affected week of playoffs.
Honestly, one of the biggest factors was the long ball — an issue that hardly hurt the Firebirds at all during the regular season. In fact, they didn’t allow a single home run until May 10 against West Fargo.
But in the time when every pitch and run were of the utmost importance, home runs came back to bite Devils Lake.
In the aforementioned 5-3 loss to Sheyenne, starting pitcher Ben Larson was plagued by a pair of home runs. A two-run shot in the first and a three-run shot in the fifth were responsible for all five Sheyenne runs.
Larson settled in during the middle of his outing. Hunter Remmick was fantastic in relief. The offense fought back and made it a game. Devils Lake still did some things well. But in the end, it was those home runs that made the difference.
Flash forward to Saturday’s season-ending loss against Horace. Parker Brodina allowed a three-run homer and a two-run homer before Devils Lake even got the chance to bat. He just didn’t have the zip on his fastball required to keep the ball in the yard that day.
Yet, even that game didn’t end up being a blowout. Devils Lake lost 10-6 — so the five runs on homers were the difference once again.
Of course, there are other things that could be pointed to. Most of them involve the pressure perhaps getting to the Firebirds — a team that hasn’t played much playoff baseball in recent years. They made some uncharacteristic baserunning mistakes in the loss to Horace, and, as mentioned, giving up those home runs wasn’t exactly like them. Not to mention the back-to-back run-scoring balks they committed. Such is the way of a learning experience for a team that hasn’t been in these tight playoff situations a whole lot.
But that’s all part of growing and getting better. Going back to the first takeaway, this program has come a long way just to get here. There are bound to be bumps along the road, especially when entering unfamiliar territory.
Baseball isn’t done for the year quite yet
While Baeth and B. Brodina’s time as Firebirds might be over, their time playing Devils Lake baseball isn’t finished yet.
The American Legion season still awaits them. The two college baseball-bound seniors will get to keep their skills sharp over the summer, along with the rest of these players.
And it should be a team to contend with. Simon Beach, a current Lake Region State College player, still has a year of Legion eligibility, so he’ll be coming back to reunite with his former high school teammates. Add him to the same cast of characters who made this such a solid spring season, and this team should be just as good as, if not better than, the team that made some real noise in the EDC.
This group gets to stay together for a couple more months. Now, perhaps, they’ll make further strides towards accomplishing what they couldn’t quite finish during the regular season.
Either way, it’ll be a chance to make one last run together. One last season as high schoolers, before their lives split in a variety of directions — whether it’s college baseball, more high school seasons or a different pursuit entirely.
Games begin the first week of June.
