It’s been a fantastic summer for the Devils Lake A team.
Following the Devils Lake Firebirds’ impressive spring — which ended in heartbreak, just short of the state tournament — a group comprised almost entirely of the same kids came out this summer and put up an even better regular season. They hit well. They pitched well. They won their last 10 games, locking up the No. 1 seed heading into the regional tournament.
Before the playoffs start, here are three principle takeaways (with some sub-takeaways) from the success they had during the regular campaign.
They had a complete offense
The only notable dry spell the Devils Lake lineup hit was around mid-June, when they competed in the Dakota Classic and faced tougher competition — and were also without Beau and Parker Brodina.
Overall, though, this was a lethal group of hitters.
There were plenty of things that made them good, but there are three things that stick out. The first was their plate discipline. On the summer, in nearly 900 total plate appearances, Devils Lake hitters combined to walk 126 times (along with 34 hit-by-pitches) and strike out only 117 times. That was good for a walk rate a touch above 14%, and a strikeout rate a touch above 13%.
Now, that walk rate was actually slightly down from the spring team’s (which had more of its “identity” revolve around walking, which at times masked its hitting production rather than complementing it), but the strikeout rate was also down, by nearly 5%. Walking more than striking out is impressive for a single hitter to do, let alone an entire offense. Especially in a large sample size, it’s a good sign that hitters are swinging at the right pitches, taking the right pitches and seeing the ball well.
When an entire lineup is on the same page like that, it makes for a resilient group that can hurt an opponent in multiple ways.
Another improvement from the spring was the team’s power output — and really its propensity for hitting as a whole. The spring team hit .255 with a .392 OBP, four home runs and 23 doubles. The summer team hit .297 with a .418 OBP, nine home runs and 33 doubles. The better weather certainly didn’t hurt in helping with some of that pop, sure, but the team just hit better across the board. There were times in the spring when the club had more walks than hits; that was never an issue this summer. The team batting average was way up, and there were more extra-base hits, leading to a .20-point increase in isolated power (slugging percentage minus batting average).
That leads to the final point about the offense, which is where those extra hits came from — especially since it was mostly the same kids. The team OPS rose from .720 to .809, but why?
In the spring, Jackson Baeth was the star. His 1.081 OPS was more than .200 points better than the next-best hitter, which in this case was B. Brodina. He hit three of the team’s four home runs.
Baeth still had a good summer, and was a consistent threat in the cleanup spot. His .354 average and .923 OPS are nothing to scoff at. But one of the biggest reasons why this offense performed so well was the other kids who stepped up to support him.
The crown of “team’s best hitter” would likely have to go to Brodina this summer. He displayed fantastic discipline during the spring and was arguably the lineup’s toughest out, and he stayed true to that form while also adding some pop this summer. He hit .308, walked more than 20% of the time, struck out less than 8% of the time and smashed three home runs. His OPS was 1.061 in 88 plate appearances.
While Brodina went from really good to great, two of the team’s other best hitters were complete surprises, if one were to only look at their spring stats.
Catcher Trason Beck’s progression encapsulates the team’s improvement as a whole. During the spring, Beck walked twice as much as he struck out and posted a strong .371 OBP — all good things — but he only hit .229 with a .292 slugging percentage. A home run early in the summer kickstarted what ended up being a fantastic campaign. He hit .357 with a .951 OPS, all while keeping up the strong strikeout-to-walk ratio. He went from a bottom-of-the-order bat who could draw some walks to a more complete, more productive hitter.
Providing another massive boost was Hunter Remmick, who didn’t even have a guaranteed starting role at the beginning of the summer. Thus, his sample size isn’t quite as large, but his stats in that span are right up there with Brodina and Beck. His 1.065 OPS actually led the team (in about 20 fewer plate appearances). He hit three home runs, including a grand slam. This is a kid who only had four hits during the entire spring season. He became just another weapon for the team to employ.
There’s more that could be said about the offense — Mason Palmer had a nearly identical OBP while raising his slugging percentage nearly .300 points and leading the team in plate appearances; and Fausten Olson remained a quietly productive on-base threat at the bottom of the order — but the bottom line is that the group improved as a unit.
Simon Beach led the pitching staff
Oh yeah, pitching was pretty important too.
Devils Lake improved its team ERA from 4.24 in the spring to 3.20 in the summer, despite the warmer weather that typically brings improved offense.
And a huge reason for that was Beach.
Beach is the veteran leader of this group, having already played a season for Lake Region State College. He’s the only player who wasn’t a part of the 2024 spring Firebirds. Slotting him in at the top of the rotation made the pitching staff instantly deeper and proved beneficial throughout the summer.
Beach threw a team-high 41 1/3 innings, nearly 20 more than the pitcher with the second-most. He threw five complete games. He averaged just over 11 pitches an inning; he struck out less than four batters per nine innings, but he also walked a minuscule 1.31 per nine. His ERA was 2.61. He was the embodiment of consistency, efficiency and accuracy.
That made the other pitchers’ jobs easier, too, because everybody moved down a slot in the rotation and had to carry less of the load. Palmer and P. Brodina were leaders of the spring rotation; in the summer, they just had to support and follow up what Beach started. Palmer’s results stayed typically strong with a 1.96 ERA in 23 innings, while Remmick actually had the most innings of any non-Beach pitcher with 24 2/3. His 4.01 ERA more than did the job as a depth option, complementing the rampage he went on with his bat.
Having Beach to start things off should prove massively valuable in the playoffs.
Young pitchers stepped up too
Like with the offense, depth proved to be a decisive factor.
Even with Beach leading the way, a higher volume of games meant Devils Lake had to dig a little deeper into its pitching staff at times. But those pitchers, more often than not, shined.
Some of the biggest ones to step up were Will Heilman, Taydon Triepke and Max Palmer.
Heilman only pitched four innings in the spring; he went on to post a 2.14 ERA in 21 summer innings. That included a one-hit shutout towards the end of the season.
Triepke, a crafty left-hander, only pitched six innings in the spring; he posted a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 summer innings. He often came in at the end of games and settled things down if something had gone awry with the previous pitcher.
Palmer, meanwhile, showed that his twin brother isn’t the only Palmer on the team who can pitch. He wasn’t as overpowering as Mason can be, but he was effective, posting a 2.87 ERA in 15 2/3 innings. He pitched in the spring, too, but gave up 12 runs (eight earned) in 7 2/3 innings. He completely turned things around and showed an ability to start games, too, rather than just enter in relief.
Devils Lake was a more complete team, overall, on both the hitting and pitching sides of things. Defensively, the Storm were solid too, once the rain and extreme wind stopped interfering with the games. It was the depth and improved overall performance that led this team to be as successful as it was, and to so handily rise to the top among all the Class A East Division teams.
But now, it’s time for the playoffs, where anything can happen. Still, the Storm put themselves in about as good a position for success as they possibly could have, and they’ll have all the momentum in their favor heading into the regional tournament.
