Dane Hagler/Photo courtesy of Tom Hager
CANDO — It wasn’t your average Class B baseball game.
In the first contest of the Devils Lake American Legion B team’s season, the Storm had to face four-sport sensation Dane Hagler. The University of Jamestown baseball commit hadn’t pitched since North Star’s region championship game, which the Bearcats lost in heartbreaking fashion.
“That one hurt,” Hagler said.
And he dominated. He struck out 11 over five scoreless innings, helping Cando Post 79 win 5-1 in the first game on Friday.
But on the other side, Devils Lake was no slouch either. The B team’s top three hitters in the lineup were Will Heilman, Taydon Triepke and Easton Kraft — three players who have all contributed to the varsity and A teams. The Storm also started Cayden McCarthy on the mound, a pitcher who threw some quality innings for the varsity team this spring.
“Got back to work,” Hagler said. “It was good to get a win early… to throw against a team that’s pretty decent on the sticks, and just dominate like that on the mound and do my thing.”
Devils Lake won the second game of the evening, 6-3. It was a five-inning contest with most of the starters sitting on both sides. But the Storm’s bats got off to a quick start and never looked back.
“I thought our kids played well,” Devils Lake coach Eric Nygaard said. “North Star’s probably one of the favorites in this district, and I thought they competed… I was happy with the way our pitchers did it. Offensively, we faced an all-state pitcher.”
Nygaard is certainly familiar with Hagler. He’s well-acquainted with the town of Cando in general, since he’s actually the principal of North Star High School. Nygaard is a veteran coach who spent about 20 years in Mayville. For the last four years, he’d been teaching at Devils Lake. He helped coach Legion ball in Devils Lake in 2023 as well.
But last spring, the principal job at North Star opened up, and Nygaard applied for it and got it. So on Friday, he got to coach against the town he works for.
“I think Jesse Vote does a nice job with these kids,” Nygaard said. “He’s coached these kids for a long, long time. And they’re good athletes, too.”
Game 1
For Hagler, this summer is about preparation.
The four-sport athlete pretty much never has a season off. And after all the sports seasons he’s racked up over the years, this is the last one he’ll play in the town of Cando.
“I gotta make the most of the time with my friends,” Hagler said. “Obviously, they’re gonna be going off to different colleges. But I still gotta be working on the sports I’m in.”
Hagler has been working with his future Jamestown baseball coach, Tom Hager, in anticipation of his college career that’s still to come. The American Legion season gives him a chance to continue harnessing his skills.
“Working on my changeup; working on everything that I want to develop in college,” Hagler said. “Start working early, so I’m understanding when I get there.”
And right from the beginning, he wasn’t messing around. He struck out Devils Lake’s top three hitters in order — all respectable hitters in their own right.
On the first pitch he saw as a batter, he ripped it to left field for a single. He stole second base, then eventually scored on a groundout to give Cando a quick 1-0 lead.
As of now, he plans to give both pitching and hitting a try when he gets to Jamestown.
“Still leaning more towards pitching; that’s what I want to do,” Hagler said. “But we’re gonna see how it goes, and kind of mixing both right away. And then see where it goes from there.”
The first baserunner against Hagler was a two-out double in the second inning by McCarthy. But he was thrown out at the plate on a would-be passed ball to end the frame.
McCarthy showcased a solid curveball. But some wildness hurt him in the bottom of the second, as did an error by Kraft at third base. Three runs scored in the inning, all on wild pitches. The Bearcats didn’t record a hit in the inning, but they drew three walks.
It was 4-0 Cando.
Hagler retired the next six batters he faced, striking out four. Isaac Woodhull lined a leadoff single against him in the fifth, but Hagler struck out the next three.
“One thing about Dane, he’s gonna be around the plate all the time,” Nygaard said. “He throws a little harder; we’ve just gotta get a little quicker with our swing.”
McCarthy, meanwhile, settled in. He still didn’t have perfect control of the strike zone, but he stranded the bases loaded in the fifth to hold the deficit at four. He struck out eight and walked five in his outing.
Karsen Simon took over for Hagler in the sixth. He only recorded one out, as he issued a walk and hit Ben Brodina before getting pulled in favor of Zach Jorde. Brodina made his way to first base quickly, but pulled up as he got to the bag. He had to be taken out of the game.
Finley Wirth, who took over Brodina’s spot, scored on a double steal to get Devils Lake on the board. But Jorde retired Triepke and Kraft to hold the damage there.
Kraft pitched the sixth inning for Devils Lake and allowed a run. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases, and a run scored on a throwing error from the catcher. Kraft was able to strike out Garrett Westlind and retire Jorde to keep it a 5-1 game. Wirth made a nice catch in right field to end the inning.
Jorde lost the strike zone a little bit, too, in the game’s final inning. After Woodhull’s second hit of the game, Jaxon Strong and McCarthy worked walks to load the bases with nobody out.
But Jorde hung in there, retiring the next three to secure the Cando victory.
“Take it one game at a time,” Hagler said. “But obviously, the end goal is to win a state championship. Gotta win that region championship first. We fell short this year. Don’t want to do that again.”
Game 2
Devils Lake went with a lineup of 12 hitters for the nightcap, because that’s something a team can do in the second game of a Class B doubleheader. Nygaard wanted to give chances to some of the hitters he felt were working hard in the cages.
The Storm came right out with four runs in the first inning against a different Hagler: Dane’s younger brother Hunter. Wirth hit an RBI double, and Ian Grey Bear drew a bases-loaded walk amidst the rally.
Infield hits from Brody Svir and H. Hagler led to a Cando run in the bottom of the first against Woodhull. Then Hagler struck out three in an impressive second inning, but the Storm rallied for two more against him in the third.
Hagler’s outing ended with the Bearcats trailing 6-1. Luckily for him, he has his older brother as a resource to help him through games like this.
“Hopefully he can figure out how to throw a strike or two. He hasn’t really learned that over the years,” D. Hagler said with a smirk. “But he threw pretty well today. He’s a pretty good hitter, so he could probably teach me a few things about that.”
The Bearcats got one back in each of the third and fourth innings against Talan Gregory. Despite at least one free pass in every inning of Game 2, though, the Storm pitching staff held it together well enough to hold on for the 6-3 win.
Strong’s performance lived up to his name, as he pitched two scoreless frames with only one hit allowed.
“Fun group of kids,” Nygaard said. And with that, the sun set on a long night of baseball in Cando.
