Will Heilman/Photo by Noah Clooten
FARGO — Devils Lake locked up the No. 3 seed out of the four teams that will be representing the East at the state tournament next week.
After punching their ticket Saturday afternoon with a win over West Fargo, the Storm played an evening rematch with Valley City Post 60, the No. 9 seed that handed them a loss on Thursday. And they got their revenge with a 5-2 win. They received a strong pitching performance from Will Heilman, and the offense scored all its runs in the first three innings.
“It’s good to get back at the team that got you in the losers’ bracket,” Devils Lake coach Brent Luehring said. “So it’s good we turned around and got the win, and gave ourselves a pretty decent matchup for next week.”
It was mostly an uneventful game after the first few innings, but it was likely the least stressful game Devils Lake played in this tournament. The Storm led 5-0 in the third, and the Royals got both their runs in the fourth.
“It feels really good, and especially since they beat us in the first round,” Heilman said. “We just wanted to come back and get ‘em back. We just played our game and got the win.”
The Storm got going right away with a two-run first inning. Beau Brodina roped a leadoff double into the right field corner, and Jackson Baeth knocked him in with a sacrifice fly. Trason Beck snuck an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0.
Heilman threw a perfect first inning, then worked around a leadoff single in the second. He pitched a 1-2-3 third, getting through the first three innings on only 25 total pitches.
Heilman also got the Storm started in the bottom of the second with a one-out single. Then Fausten Olson smacked one that the right fielder took a completely wrong route on, resulting in an RBI triple.
“It’s just confidence,” Heilman said. “Keep my eye on the ball, and just keeping everything simple.”
Devils Lake added two more in the third. Baeth singled the other way, then scored on a three-base throwing error by the third baseman. Ben Larson hit a soft roller up the third base line, which stayed in the perfect spot for a hit. The good fortune extended the Storm’s lead to 5-0.
“We struggled to score runs against them the first time, and it was nice that we were pretty disciplined early in the game,” Luehring said. “We didn’t swing at bad pitches. And the ones we hit were pretty well.”
Devils Lake committed its own three-base error, though, on a fly ball to right fielder Taydon Triepke in the fourth. Then Heilman surrendered a triple that got Valley City on the board. With two outs, he threw a wild pitch that trimmed Devils Lake’s lead to 5-2.
Heilman settled back in from there. A double play erased a leadoff single in the fifth, and he set the Royals down 1-2-3 in a rainy sixth.
“I was executing my pitches, and knowing that the defense behind me is gonna make plays for me when the ball gets put in play,” Heilman said.
In the bottom of the sixth, Heilman and Olson each collected their second hit of the day. But they were left stranded.
Heilman finished it off, working around a one-out single with a game-ending double play.
Overall, Heilman allowed just two unearned runs in a complete-game effort. He gave up four hits, struck out three and didn’t issue any walks.
“Will’s a competitor,” Luehring said. “Good athlete. Never gonna shy away from the moment. He just keeps earning his role on this team as a freshman. And he throws the ball pretty well.”
Devils Lake gets to keep playing baseball now in the state tournament, which will be held in Mandan from Aug. 1-6.
As happy as they are with this accomplishment, the Storm know they’re still not playing their best baseball right now. They only scored a total of 12 runs in four games in Fargo, and their state hopes became a lot dicier than they likely would have preferred.
“For a team taking third place and battling back and stuff, I think we’re still not overly a finished product,” Luehring said. “I mean, we’re happy. We’re happy to get back in. We’re happy to get to our goal, get to the state tournament. But we know we can play better, and we’re excited for next week to have that opportunity.”
An obvious key for this team will be getting the bats going. The Storm hitters have still been taking a calm and rational approach to turning things around, and they’re heading into next week with spirits up.
“Everyone’s just cheering each other on,” Heilman said. “And everyone’s keeping their confidence high.”
Devils Lake gets the next four days off before heading west.
