Hugh Montgomery (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The Royals had a smile-filled, easygoing time at their Sophomore Night on Wednesday at DLYA Field.
Lake Region State College baseball, fresh off of sweeping its last conference doubleheader, hosted a non-conference game against the University of North Dakota club team to finish out the regular season. The Royals, who own a program-best 11 conference wins this year, honored their six sophomores before the game.
“We left last year was in a really bad spot,” LRSC sophomore Simon Beach said. “And to come with a new coach and new everything and turn it around like we did, that’s all you can ask for with a new program leader.”
The Royals played their final game with a lineup that featured their typical center fielder playing second base, one of their starting pitchers batting fifth and one of their relievers batting sixth. The six sophomores all pitched. Safe to say it was a different look for an LRSC team that found a multitude of spots for different guys to play. The Royals (14-31, 11-13) fell to the Fighting Hawks (12-11, 9-3) by a score of 10-5 ahead of this weekend’s playoffs.
“Obviously it’s not the result that we wanted, but overall, I feel pretty good about it,” LRSC head coach Steve Anderson said. “The plan for a while was Sophomore Night, let the sophomores kind of take charge and write the lineup and decide who’s going where and who’s subbing in. My only stipulation is I wanted all of the sophomores to get an inning on the mound… The biggest thing was just getting a few more reps to get ready for this weekend.”
Beach, a Devils Lake native, started on the mound in likely his last game playing at DLYA Field. Primarily a pitcher, Beach also got to bat fifth.
“It’s huge,” Beach said. “You saw a bunch of the community members and family members, and people are out here watching.”
His first inning went well, with nothing more than a one-out single. He got 24-year-old Sunny Resnick, who’s in his sixth year with the UND club team, to fly out.
The Royals scratched out a run in the bottom half on an RBI single by Brayden Ehnert, taking a 1-0 lead. Beach came back out and struck out his first batter in the second inning, but things went downhill from there. The Fighting Hawks struck some balls hard to left field — including an RBI double that tied it and then a go-ahead three-run homer that was rifled over the fence by Broc Mutterer.
With LRSC down 4-1, LRSC turned to Ehnert to pitch the third. Beach slid back to right field. The two innings pitched gave Beach 50 for the season and 84 for his career. Both are school records. Beach is one of only five pitchers in the entire Mon-Dak with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title this year.
“It’s just coming out here and competing. It’s the same thing that I did in the summertime [Legion season],” Beach said. “Just hit your spots, locate. And you’re the best player out there as soon as you’re on the mound. And that’s why I tell these guys all the time, ‘That’s your mound. You control the pace, the play, everything. It’s your world, and they’re just living in it when you’re on the mound.’”
Ehnert, another of the six sophomores, is a New York Mills, Minnesota, native. He had to grind through a 27-pitch third inning, which included another sharp run-scoring double to left field. But despite two walks and a hit batter in the inning, he escaped the frame having allowed only two runs, the Royals now trailing 6-1.
They got one back in the bottom half, aided by back-to-back errors from the UND first baseman. Sophomore Hugh Montgomery also added a steal to his school stolen base record.
LRSC went to its next sophomore in the fourth inning with Lane Kinsella, a 5-foot-9 right-hander from Havre, Montana. He got the first two outs before the Hawks found some holes, hitting three straight singles to load the bases.
UND’s Alex Brosnahan walloped one that snuck over the fence for a grand slam. The blast deepened the Royals’ deficit to 10-2.
After falling down by eight runs, LRSC started to use some of its regulars who were on the bench. Lucas Lyons replaced Beach’s spot in the lineup, and Dane Hagler went in for Kinsella. They both grounded out.
Down in the bottom of the order, to lead off the bottom of the fifth, Devils Lake native Beau Brodina drew one of his classic walks to get things going. Leif Sigurdson then lined an RBI triple down the right-field line, and Montgomery hit a fly ball that narrowly dropped for an RBI double.
Montgomery, after an aggressive tag-up to get to third, scored on a wild pitch to cut LRSC’s deficit to 10-5.
The next two sophomores in the pitching lineup were Jacob Warnke and Tyler Kleinjan. They pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth, respectively.
Despite Kleinjan throwing just six pitches, the Royals went to their sixth sophomore in Montgomery to pitch the seventh. Although he stands at just 5-foot-8, he pumped some heat. He had trouble locating his curveball, but he dotted the outer edge with his fastball and struck out the side in order.
A single by Kleinjan put runners on the corners in the final frame, but the Royals stranded them as they fell by five.
“I think the guys had a good time, and obviously we wanted a different result, but that’s baseball sometimes, right?” Anderson said.
After the postgame team huddle, Anderson and his assistant coaches stayed out in right field with the sophomores for just a little while longer. Anderson said he thanked them for what they’ve done for this program, being an instrumental part in getting the team to its most ever conference wins.
The Royals now head to Miles City, Montana, for a playoff matchup with second-place Miles Community College (35-15, 18-6) on Saturday.
“We’ve had ups, and we’ve had downs, but I feel like we continued to grow every day, every week,” Anderson said. “And from day one on August 29 or whenever that was, the goal was to be ready to go to make a run in the playoffs. At the end of the day, nothing else really matters except for playing our best baseball in the playoffs and winning the first playoff series the school’s ever seen.
“And so here we are. We’re ready to go finally fight the final battle that we’ve been working for all year long.”
