DEVILS LAKE — The Devils Lake B team got to play its first home games on Thursday.
The Storm (2-3) split a doubleheader with the previously undefeated Velva 39ers (5-1). They won 10-5 in the first game, thanks to a late-inning outburst. But they fell 7-2 in the nightcap.
Game 1
The first contest was close…until it wasn’t.
Right-hander Cayden McCarthy, who got some varsity action this spring, battled through control issues to give Devils Lake a solid outing. The teams were back and forth until the sixth, when the Storm exploded for six runs and put the game away.
The 39ers scratched out a run in each of the first two innings. McCarthy walked a batter in each frame, and Velva had a quick 2-0 lead after a sacrifice fly and an RBI double.
But the Storm stormed right back in the bottom of the second. Jaxon Strong singled, stole second base and scored on a well-placed bunt from the nine-hole hitter, Tayven Wiberg.
Then Ben Brodina, hitting leadoff, roped one deep to center for a game-tying RBI double. It was his second hit in as many at-bats. Taydon Triepke — who splits time between the A and B teams — hit a little bloop that fell in left field for a double, and Devils Lake took a 3-2 lead.
“He’s been struggling a little bit on the A team,” B team head coach Eric Nygaard said. “And I talked to Coach [Jeff] Carpenter and Coach [Brent] Luehring, and I just said, ‘I think he needs a few more at-bats at the B team to get him going.’ One of the things we told him is ‘Swing at everything. Just keep your head down. See it at the barrel.’”
McCarthy survived an error and a walk in the third inning. He seemed to be settling in, retiring the first two batters of the fourth inning as well.
But then a spurt of wildness hit him.
A hit by pitch on an 0-2 count loaded the bases, following a single and a walk. McCarthy couldn’t find his control. He issued back-to-back RBI walks, giving Velva a 4-3 lead.
“He’d get the first two outs, and then he kind of loses the strike zone a little bit, and loses focus a little bit,” Nygaard said. “He battled hard, though.”
McCarthy, for the most part, settled back in for the rest of his outing. He worked around three singles over the next two innings to keep the 39ers off the board.
Finley Wirth led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, hitting it the opposite way out of a very open left-handed batting stance. He scored on a sacrifice bunt from none other than McCarthy, tying the game back up.
Then the onslaught commenced in the bottom of the sixth. And Velva’s sloppiness in the field certainly helped. A popup off of Riley Brenno-Quale’s bat fell for a single, thus igniting the rally. Wiberg singled, and Triepke had the go-ahead knock. His RBI single made it 5-4, and an extra run scored thanks to a wild throw from the 39ers’ catcher.
Easton Kraft added an RBI single of his own. Then an error by the first baseman extended the inning, loading the bases in the process. Mack Elsperger provided the ghastliest blow, as he lined a three-run double down the left field line.
The Storm led 10-4.
McCarthy started the seventh inning, but he left with a runner on base and one out. Triepke took over on the mound and allowed the runner to score, but otherwise finished off the victory.
Game 2
The second game of the evening had a wider margin from the beginning. The starting lineup had a different look, with Nygaard wanting to get everybody in who didn’t play in Game 1.
“Experience-wise, our second game, we didn’t have a lot of experience,” Nygaard said. “But we want to get that to them.”
Velva’s offense opened the game with three straight singles against Isaac Woodhull. The 39ers were running wild with three stolen bases, though catcher Brodina threw one out at third for the inning’s first out.
A two-out single gave Velva an early 3-0 lead. Woodhull finally put the frame to rest after all nine batters came to the plate.
The Storm ran themselves out of the second inning. They had a walk and a single, but the first runner was caught trying to steal second, and the other was doubled off of second base on a line drive to the first baseman.
Woodhull ended up pitching three innings for Devils Lake, keeping Velva off the board in the second and third. He surrendered two walks and a single in the third inning, but Brodina’s second caught stealing helped Woodhull navigate the traffic.
Jaxon Strong was the next in line on the bump. He allowed a run in the fourth, in large part due to a wild pitch where the runner advanced all the way from first to third. He gave up three more runs in the fifth on a trio of RBI singles. The Storm had a prime chance to pull off a relay at home on the first run, but the throw to the plate was wild. Devils Lake’s deficit fell to a deeper 7-0.
Brodina caught his third runner of the night, helping the Storm get out of the inning. Nygaard said it was the first time Brodina has played catcher in a game he’s coached.
“He’s a good athlete,” Nygaard said of Ben — the younger brother of Beau, Parker and Tylie Brodina. “He plays in lots of different sports, and he’s aggressive. He’s been around the game, too. He gets a lot of opportunities for that.”
The Storm were an out away from being shut out. But Triepke, who didn’t start Game 2, hit a two-run double in his lone at-bat of the game. He combined to go 4-for-5 between the two games — just the kind of experience Nygaard was hoping he’d get out of going back down to the B team.
It got Devils Lake off the schneid, but the Storm still fell by a five-run margin.
The Devils Lake B team is back in action at home against New Rockford on Monday. In the meantime, the A team will be playing in the Dakota Classic in Renner this weekend. Five members of the B team will be traveling to help out the A squad.
