Mason Palmer/Photo by Noah Clooten
DEVILS LAKE — Easton Ebeling had been missing behind batters all night.
In the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader — which Devils Lake once again swept — Ebeling held the Storm offense hitless into the sixth. He didn’t have great control, though, as he walked four batters and was often throwing above hitters’ heads.
One of those misses resulted in a bizarre single that prompted laughter from the Devils Lake fans in the bleachers. Will Heilman ducked to avoid the ball hitting his head, and he accidentally let his bat hit the ball. The ball died in the shallow infield, and Ebeling couldn’t field it cleanly.
It was all part of a five-run sixth inning that completed the sweep for the Storm, improving their record to 7-0. Mason Palmer was brilliant on the mound, as he pitched a three-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts. He also happened to break Ebeling’s no-hitter in the sixth, which set up the offensive outburst.
“We’ll take it any way we can get it, man,” Devils Lake head coach Brent Luehring said. “It’s probably gonna be the weirdest single he’s ever had in his life. Probably the weirdest I’ve ever seen, too.”
Game 1
Devils Lake battled for a 7-6 victory in the first game. The Storm faced an early deficit, but Post 400 committed seven errors compared to Devils Lake’s zero. Despite some baserunning blunders and nine runners left on base, the Storm managed to squeeze out a win. They put at least two runners on in every inning they batted.
Right-hander Ben Larson dealt with some spotty control in the first inning of Game 1, issuing a pair of walks to set the table. With two outs, a single brought in the game’s first run, and a three-run homer quickly put Devils Lake in a 4-0 hole.
The bottom of the first began in an eerily similar way as Monday’s. In both cases, Max Palmer led off with a hit, and a free pass put two runners on. Then, also on both days, Jackson Baeth hit a hard ground ball that was misplayed by the third baseman — and in each situation, it resulted in the bases being loaded with one out.
On Monday, the Storm only got one run in this scenario. On Tuesday, they got two, as Heilman and Trason Beck drew back-to-back walks. It sliced the deficit to 4-2.
But that was all they could muster. Post 400’s pitcher regained the strike zone and pumped in curveballs to strike out Simon Beach and Hunter Remmick.
Through two innings, temporary leadoff hitter Max Palmer had the only two hits for Devils Lake. The team’s second-inning rally was thwarted after Palmer got thrown out trying to steal third base.
Still, the Storm kept spinning. Baeth connected on a flat pitch in the middle of the strike zone, which sailed over the fence for his second home run of the summer. The Devils Lake cleanup hitter is red-hot right now.
They kept putting quality at-bats together. Later that same inning, Remmick hit a game-tying single. Taydon Triepke then laid down a perfect bunt single, bringing home the go-ahead run. Palmer continued his productive day with a sacrifice fly, and it was a four-run inning to give Devils Lake a 6-4 lead.
Larson seemed to settle in during the third inning, inducing three quick popups. But his control let up again in the fourth. He began the frame with back-to back walks, and a run scored on a groundout. He still managed to strand the potential tying run on third.
The Storm had runners on in the fourth and fifth, but in both cases they were again hurt by baserunning mistakes. The runners who reached second kept straying too far off the bag. And it cost them.
“We’re playing some kids that you think that they’re ready, but sometimes you don’t know when they’re out there,” Luehring said. “You just gotta hope that they do the right job. And yeah, we had some baserunning errors, and kids trying to be aggressive. And it’s hard; you want kids to be aggressive and try to make a play.”
Larson regained his best form in the fifth, getting three weak balls in the air. It was his third straight inning not allowing a hit.
He appeared to be in a groove, even retiring the first two batters of the sixth inning in quick fashion. But the Comets tacked together a pair of two-out hits, including a game-tying blooper into shallow right field that made it a brand new ballgame at 6-6.
“It seemed like when he walked guys, they scored today,” Luehring said. “But he settled in and kept competing, and he gave us six. It wasn’t, maybe, his best effort, but he was good enough.”
Still, yet again, the Storm got to business in the bottom half. A pair of errors by the pitcher brought Baeth to the plate with runners on the corners. He hit a sacrifice fly, and Devils Lake reclaimed the lead.
Baeth got the final three outs on the mound. The Comets made things slightly interesting with a single and a walk, but a line drive right at center fielder Fausten Olson ended the contest.
Notable performances
Max Palmer: 2-for-3, RBI, 2 R
Hunter Remmick: 2-for-3, RBI, R
Jackson Baeth: 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI, R; 1.0 IP, H, 0 R, BB, K
Game 2
Hits were hard to come by in the nightcap — until, of course, Devils Lake got profoundly fortunate on Heilman’s blind RBI single in the sixth. The Storm eventually won the game 5-0, but it took more than five innings to even record a hit.
Ebeling only had one perfect inning for the Comets. He issued a walk in the first, second and fifth innings, and hit a batter in the fourth. But Devils Lake also struck out five times and was in serious danger of being no-hit on the DLYA Field home turf.
Mason Palmer, meanwhile, nearly matched Ebeling. Granted, he didn’t flirt with a no-hitter — as he surrendered a two-out single in the first — but the next hit against him didn’t come until the sixth. He issued a leadoff walk in the third and fifth innings, but his control was strong overall. He had a solid feel for his curveball, which only seemed to get better throughout the night.
“My offspeed, I finally got control of it,” Palmer said. “So I worked that into the pitch mix.”
Perhaps the Comets’ best chance was in the sixth, when a single and a walk gave them runners on the corners with two outs. But Palmer got the Comets’ five-hitter to go fishing — not in the lake, but for a curveball. It was his 10th strikeout to keep the game scoreless.
Then came the wonderful, wild bottom of the sixth.
Olson, as he so often does, worked a disciplined plate appearance to draw a walk. Then Devils Lake fans finally got to breathe a sigh of relief as Mason Palmer lined a single into left field.
An actual, real live hit. There was no longer a 0 in the hits column on the scoreboard.
“Barrel a ball on time; that’s what I was trying to do the whole game,” Palmer said. “And I finally found a gap.”
Baeth hit a little blooper into shallow left, which loaded the bases. Olson scored the game’s first run on a passed ball.
Then it was Heilman’s turn.
He got himself into an unlucky 1-2 count in the same unusual fashion that gave him his hit. While ducking under a ball over his head, he kept the bat too high above his shoulder, and the ball ticked it for a foul ball.
But any frustration that might have surfaced in that moment vanished once the baseball gods granted him a perfectly placed “single,” allowing Mason Palmer to score the team’s second run.
“Well, I was on third, and I was like, ‘He’s getting out of the way,’ so I thought it was gonna be a wild pitch,” Palmer said. “And it his bat — I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I better run.’”
The next at-bat, an almost equally strange bunt double by Beck, was overshadowed by Heilman’s heroics. Nobody covered first or second base for the Comets, and it was 3-0.
Beach put the game away with a sharp double down the left field line, bringing in two more. It was a five-run inning, with eight consecutive Storm batters reaching safely.
“We’ve been putting the ball in play a lot. Getting hits,” Palmer said. “And our defense is shaping up.”
With Palmer’s pitch count nearing 100, Luehring had been considering taking him out. But Palmer insisted that he had this, and Luehring was encouraged by his confidence.
Palmer allowed a single with two outs in the seventh — just the third hit he’d surrendered all evening. He struck out his 11th batter as he otherwise shut the door on a masterful performance.
“He just dictated today, man. He was fun,” Luehring said. “He was able to locate his curveball. He was throwing the ball on the outer half… He was able to throw his fastball up, and he could build his curveball off it.”
Now, the undefeated Storm are headed to South Dakota for the Dakota Classic in Renner, a small neighborhood just north of Sioux Falls. They’ll be competing against unfamiliar teams from South Dakota and Nebraska.
“I’m excited. It’s a way to get better,” Luehring said. “We’re gonna play a lot of guys down there, and challenge a lot of kids and see what we have. We’re gonna get pushed. There’s gonna be some really good talent. I know there’s a college showcase thing going on at the same time… We have a really fun group to be around. They enjoy each other, and that’s half the battle. Sometimes when you’ve been around each other for three or four months, you kind of get sick of each other, but every day they come with a good attitude and they’re just fun to be with.”
The Storm are scheduled to play four games over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They’ll need to win their pool to keep playing on Monday.
“It’s gonna be exciting,” Palmer said. “You get to see new players, good competition hopefully. And see if we can compete with them.”
Notable performances
Mason Palmer: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 11 K
Will Heilman: 1-for-3, RBI, R
Simon Beach: 1-for-3, 2 RBI
