Takeaways from the Dakota Classic

The dust has settled, and the Devils Lake American Legion A team is back in its familiar territory of North Dakota.

From here on out, after four games in three days in South Dakota, the Storm will remain in North Dakota for the remainder of summer. And it’s easy to forget how much season is left, or how good of a position this team is in despite going 1-3 in the Dakota Classic. The tournament was a challenge for Devils Lake, but despite taking place 400 miles away, it was merely a small step in the road of this summer season.

The offense slowed down

The biggest and most obvious issue was the offense slowing down. Attribute it to the bigger and stronger competition, or just natural regression to the mean, but Devils Lake struggled to get the bats going. And that was the biggest reason why it didn’t perform better.

It’s precisely the opposite of the narrative through this team’s first seven games, where it went 7-0. Not too long ago, I was writing about how the club had taken a noticeable step up offensively — particularly in regards to its power output and pristine strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Alas, it was probably unrealistic to expect the Storm to maintain a .506 OBP, which they entered the tournament with. The same goes for the .387 team batting average and .565 slugging percentage. Devils Lake was walking almost 18% of the time and striking out less than 7% of the time. Its team weighted on-base average was .471. None of these numbers were sustainable.

Then, add another variable in the form of teams from Nebraska and South Dakota. When playing conference games, the Storm players have often crossed paths previously with many of their opposing players during the spring season. That possibility didn’t exist last week. And it turned out, once they finally got to see these unfamiliar teams up close, that they featured kids with some pretty remarkable strength and speed. These teams were good. American Legion Baseball is big in Nebraska; in fact, with 273 teams, it has the third-most of any state in the country.

On the mound, Devils Lake really didn’t perform much differently than usual. The Storm lost 10-2 in Game 1, but Hunter Remmick kept them as close as 4-2 in the sixth inning, and it was only after he left the game that it got away from them. The second day of the tournament featured a pair of 3-1 losses, with Will Heilman and Taydon Triepke both turning in solid outings. Then Max Palmer shined in Devils Lake’s lone win of the trip, pitching a complete game in a 7-2 defeat of Harrisburg.

The team still has a good 4.29 ERA on the summer — a number that was 4.09 before the tournament. The pitching held steady, for the most part, last week, and managed to contain some very good Nebraskan and South Dakotan hitters.

The problem, as stated, was the offense, with only four runs combined in the first three games. The Storm scored five in the first inning of the fourth game, surpassing how many they’d scored in the entire tournament. The team’s offensive numbers on the season are still impressive, and better than its spring numbers, though still a far cry from the insanely hot start Devils Lake got out to this summer. Its team batting line fell to .316/.436/.417, and its walk rate is now only narrowly better than its strikeout rate, with 15.8% compared to 14.5%. These are all still good — just not as good as before.

A barrage of walks helped the Storm win that final game, particularly in the first inning. But offensive production just didn’t come at the same level overall.

Reasons for optimism with the bats

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

For one, now the Storm are back to facing more familiar opponents. They already returned to their home state with a 5-4 win over West Fargo. That made them 6-0 in conference play — which is what really matters when it comes time for playoff seeding.

It also wouldn’t be right to talk about the offense without mentioning how good Trason Beck has been. It started with his first career home run, and it’s continued with a consistent streak of hitting the ball hard and getting results.

Beck was a valuable piece for the Firebirds in the spring, but he’s taken off to new heights in the early goings of the summer. His spring batting average and slugging percentage left something to be desired, at .229 and .292, and head coach Brent Luehring echoed that Beck probably didn’t have the season he wanted. He still had a walk rate over 16%, though, giving him an impressive .370 OBP. That, combined with his catching duties, made him an important cog in the machine of the team that placed fourth in the EDC during the spring.

But this summer, he’s simply been the best hitter on the team.

He’s batting .417 in 27 plate appearances, along with a homer and two doubles. He only hit three doubles the entire spring. He has a .444 OBP and .625 slugging percentage. Perhaps the most impressive stat is that he’s only struck out once. His offensive numbers, across the board, are the best of anyone on the team with enough plate appearances to qualify — even narrowly better than Jackson Baeth, who typically wears the crown of “team’s best hitter.” Baeth hasn’t been a slouch either, batting .310 with a .911 OPS, but Beck clears him with a 1.069 OPS, for now.

Remmick has also quietly been hot at the bottom of the order, starting this summer on a torrid 7-for-14 stretch. Max Palmer also stepped up with a few hits in the leadoff spot this week, and earned a place in the two-hole when the team came back to play West Fargo.

And that’s because the Brodinas are back, which leads to my next point.

Devils Lake had to play last week without arguably two of its top three hitters. Beau Brodina is the team’s usual leadoff hitter, and is always a tough out for opposing pitchers. Parker Brodina has some of the most raw power of any hitter on the team, and he was hitting an absurd .625 with a 1.769 OPS before he and his brother took a little vacation. Granted, that was only in 13 plate appearances (eight at-bats). But to lose two huge pieces like that definitely made things harder on Devils Lake offensively in the Dakota Classic.

That’s all in the past now, though. The Brodinas are back. The Storm had to learn to play without them, which should only make them stronger with the bonus of adding them back in. Contributions from kids like Beck, Remmick and Max Palmer — along with whoever else decides to get hot — will now be welcome additions, rather than something the team needs to rely on.

They gained experience

Ultimately, this was all just a valuable learning experience for the Storm.

When they first arrived, Luehring was saying how they were just happy to be playing. He made a good point that there was little to lose, considering that these were non-conference games.

And now, it’s safe to say that Devils Lake is a little more battle-tested.

“Playing against teams you don’t know, sometimes it takes some time to feel each other out,” Luehring said after the tournament ended. “I thought the first day we were a little nervous right away. Settled in. But I’m really happy the way we played these last two days. I thought we competed. I thought our pitching staff did great all weekend.”

This team is making a strong bid to not only compete in the regional tournament, but to be one of the top teams in the field. They might have struggled a little bit with an incomplete roster against stronger, unfamiliar teams, but they should only be better for it in the end.