Tayven Wiberg/Photo by Noah Clooten
To kick off the final couple weeks of the Devils Lake B team’s regular season, the Storm traveled up to Bottineau to play Post 42 on Monday. Devils Lake fell in both games of a doubleheader, 9-1 and 3-2.
In the first game, the Storm were sunk by a seven-run second inning. Only two of the runs were earned, though, against pitcher Alex Hammond.
Offense was hard to come by, as Devils Lake tallied just three hits. Two of them came from Jaxon Strong, while the other was an RBI single by leadoff hitter Ben Brodina in the fifth inning.
Strong also pitched three innings in relief, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out three. Talan Gregory added a scoreless inning.
In the five-inning nightcap, Devils Lake scored a run in each of the first two innings to go ahead 2-0. Mack Elsperger hit an RBI double, while Carson Hogness singled and came around to score on a wild pitch.
Bottineau put up a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second, though, to tie it up at two apiece. Pitcher Isaac Woodhull picked off a runner at first after he reached on an error, but a double, another error and a passed ball led to a run. Bottineau scored the tying run after the third error of the inning, a walk and a run-scoring balk.
Woodhull kept Bottineau in check in the third and fourth. But with the game still knotted at twos in the bottom of the fifth, he walked the first three batters, then surrendered a walk-off single.
Overall, Woodhull allowed three runs (one earned) in four-plus innings with five strikeouts, five walks and two hits. The Devils Lake offense only had three hits of its own, two of which were from Elsperger.
That brings the Storm B team to 6-10 overall this summer. They’ve lost three in a row, going back to the nightcap against Rugby last week.
The rest of their regular season schedule, though, is at home. Their next action is a doubleheader on Thursday against the Jamestown Blues. It’ll be the first of four home doubleheaders to close out the regular summer season before the sectional tournament in Cando.
