Easton Kraft/Photo by Noah Clooten
CANDO — The Devils Lake B team lives another day.
The Storm won for the second time on Tuesday, beating Rugby Post 23 in a rematch of Monday’s game. Devils Lake posted a double-digit run total for the second straight contest, putting the hammer down with an 11-5 victory. The offense put up 16 base hits in the win.
“You gotta weather the storm,” Storm head coach Eric Nygaard said, no pun intended. “There’s gonna be things where the other team’s gonna score some runs or get some base hits. But if you weather the storm and just focus on what you have control over, good things happen. We didn’t fall today, which is good.”
The Storm — who are the youngest team in the district, given the nature of Devils Lake having an A and a B team — are now one of just three teams left in the tournament.
“We basically could put a Babe Ruth team together with some of these kids,” Nygaard said. “The one thing I think they’ve learned is to compete in the lower levels. So it’s fun to play.”
But they weren’t winning from the beginning.
Talan Gregory allowed three runs in the first inning before recording an out. Two free passes and an error loaded the bases, and then Rugby knocked back-to-back singles to make it 3-0.
“That first inning gave us some ulcers, I think,” Nygaard said. “Holy crap.”
Devils Lake went to business in the second. Isaac Woodhull doubled into the left field corner to set the table for Finley Wirth, who got the Storm on the board with an RBI double.
Nygaard actually hadn’t been originally planning to have Wirth in the lineup. Mack Eslperger was previously slated to play, but he had a stomach issue, so Wirth took his place.
And he came through.
“That was huge for him,” Nygaard said. “I was so excited for Finley to finally get a ball in the gap.”
After Wirth’s hit, Ben Brodina and Tayven Wiberg both found holes, driving in two more runs and tying the game.
“It was dead,” Devils Lake third baseman Easton Kraft said of the team energy during the early deficit. “And then we got a couple hits going, and that usually gets the dugout going.”
Kraft kept the line moving with a deep double. Two runs scored on the play to jolt Devils Lake ahead. Kraft scored on a wild pitch, and the frame finally came to an end with the Storm having scored six runs to take a 6-3 lead.
“This team likes to fight back, and I like to fight back too,” Kraft said. “We’re a tough team to beat.”
In the bottom of the second, Gregory struck out the side in order with a sharp curveball. It was the ultimate way to bounce back from a rough inning.
“You set the fastballs up, and the curveball looks just better,” Nygaard said. “He finally got that where he was starting to pitch, where he located his fastball, and his curveball came out and got some people out.”
Rugby got one back, though, on a single and an error in the third. Catcher Riley Brenno-Quale threw out a runner trying to steal second, which helped Gregory limit the damage, especially after he walked the next two batters. He ended the inning by dropping another curveball in for his fourth strikeout.
Wirth and Brodina led off the fourth inning with back-to-back singles. But Wirth was caught trying to steal third. Kraft’s third hit of the game loaded the bases — but Brodina tried to sprint home on a squeeze play where the pitch was too far outside for McCarthy to make contact. Brodina was tagged by the catcher for the second out.
McCarthy took the next pitch the opposite way, getting a run across for Devils Lake anyway. The lead was back to three, at 7-4.
The Storm put up four more runs in the fifth to really separate themselves. After Gregory smashed a hard line-drive single, Ryan Samuelson ran for him and stole two bases, then scored on an errant throw by the catcher. Brodina added a sacrifice fly.
The inning ended on a big hit from Kraft — his fourth of the night. He lined a single that got by the right fielder for an error, allowing two runs to score. Kraft was thrown out trying to advance to third. Still, the rally now had Devils Lake up to an 11-4 lead, with 15 total hits across the lineup.
Gregory worked around an error in the fourth and a walk in the fifth. An error led to a run, though, in the sixth, as Rugby poked a two-out RBI single through the middle.
Gregory recorded the first out of the seventh, then exited after an error and a hit by pitch. He ended up throwing 120 pitches, allowing five runs (two earned) with seven strikeouts and five walks in 6 1/3 innings. He displayed some impressive endurance to hang in there after the first five batters of the game reached against him.
“There was an error that happened that first inning; I think that’s where it kind of triggered him,” Nygaard said. “It’s like, how do you respond to that?… He grinded it out. He was pitching, finally, in the later innings.”
Carson Hogness came in and finished the game with a pair of strikeouts. It put an exclamation point on the six-run win.
Now Devils Lake will play Velva at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The 39ers most recently got run-ruled by Cando Post 79. The winner of that game will play directly afterward against Cando, the host and No. 1 seed.
