Devils Lake B team/Photo by Noah Clooten
The Devils Lake B team and Cando Post 79 both recorded dominant wins on the road against Harvey recently.
Though neither game was particularly competitive, it was nonetheless important for each squad to get a tally in the win column. The Storm improved to 5-5; they’ve already split three doubleheaders this summer, and are still trying to round into their sharpest form before the playoffs. Cando, meanwhile, is undefeated in conference games and 7-2 overall on the summer. After crushing Harvey, the Bearcats went on to sweep a doubleheader over Velva.
Strong pitching was a common theme throughout these games. Both teams received some notable performances on the mound — Talan Gregory for Devils Lake, and Dane Hagler and Karsen Simon for Cando.
Devils Lake beat Harvey 15-0 on Wednesday. Going back to the nightcap of Monday’s home doubleheader, it was the Storm’s second consecutive win, getting them back to a .500 record.
Despite the offensive onslaught, the biggest standout performance might have been the pitching effort from Gregory. He pitched five scoreless innings, striking out seven. He allowed just three hits and two walks. The Storm have been searching for the pitchers to lead them, and Gregory’s outing was massive in securing some of that confidence.
The bats were led by three big innings: four runs in the first, five in the second and six in the fifth. Easton Kraft had another strong game after hitting his first home run on Monday. He went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and two RBIs. Ben Brodina also had another good showing, collecting a couple hits and an RBI out of the leadoff spot. Alex Hammond had a multi-hit day as well.
Cayden McCarthy, who typically bats in the middle of the order, continued to be an on-base machine as of late. He went 1-for-1 with three walks and an RBI, along with three runs scored. Going back to Monday, he’s reached base in nine consecutive plate appearances. This is in addition to the work he does on the mound and with the Devils Lake A team.
Cando beat this same Harvey team earlier in the week, on Monday, by a score of 17-0. The game only lasted three innings.
Coming into the summer, the Bearcats were expected to be a force in Class B, given that it’s the final year for their core group of Hagler, Parker Simon, Karsen Simon, Garrett Westlind, Zach Jorde and Chas Bisbee. They put up eight runs in the first inning, four in the second and five in the third.
Every spot in the lineup reached base at least once. P. Simon collected two doubles and a walk in his three plate appearances. K. Simon and Brody Svir also achieved multi-hit performances. Hagler was on base three times, which is just another game for him. Lower in the order, Sean Freund stepped up, going 1-for-2 with a double and three RBIs. On the mound, the Simons and Bisbee combined to piece three innings together.
That momentum carried into Tuesday, with a pair of more-competitive games that still resulted in Cando victories. The Bearcats beat Velva 7-2 in the first game, carried by a four-run sixth inning that widened the gap. Freund had a bunt double in the frame, while Svir recorded a two-out, two-run hit, and another scored on a passed ball.
K. Simon gave Cando a forceful effort on the mound. He pitched six innings, allowing just two unearned runs on four hits. He struck out eight and walked four. Both runs scored on a single in the fifth inning, which would have been over already if not for an error. At the time, it made it a tight ballgame at 3-2.
The Bearcats scored two in the first, though, and never relinquished their lead. Hunter Hagler drove in his older brother Dane with a single, and Jorde added an RBI single to make it 2-0. Hits from Svir and P. Simon led to a run in the third inning.
And Cando kept its winning ways going with a 5-0 win in the nightcap, which was a full seven innings. The team received a vintage performance from D. Hagler. He had an absurdly dominant outing, striking out 15 in seven scoreless innings with no walks and just one hit allowed. The lone hit was a single in the first inning from Velva’s three-hole hitter; there were no base hits after that. The only other baserunnners came on errors (and one on a dropped third strike).
The 39ers combined to go 1-for-26 at the plate. Hagler managed to keep his pitch count at 93 despite striking out 15. It was about as good a pitching performance as one gets.
It was important for Hagler, too, as he continues to train and prepare for his upcoming baseball career at the University of Jamestown. Though he plans to pitch and hit, he said earlier that pitching is definitely his focus right now.
Almost an afterthought in the game was that Hagler also went 2-for-4 with a double. Hunter had a multi-hit game as well, along with Jorde. Svir stayed hot with a double and a walk, too.
With the summer roughly halfway over, it’s going to be all about elongating this success now for both Devils Lake and Cando. The Storm just need to find some consistency and figure out ways to win some of these closer games, while the Bearcats need to simply continue what’s already been working for them. Both teams have gotten some solid pitching and offensive outbursts lately, though, and should be well-equipped for the upcoming stretch run.
