DEVILS LAKE — The fourth-place Devils Lake Firebirds fought another battle on Friday at DLYA Field.
Coming in with a three-game wining streak, and as winners of four of their last five, the Firebirds split a doubleheader for the third time this year. Facing eighth-place West Fargo Sheyenne (9-7, 6-8), Devils Lake (7-5, 7-5) lost 3-1 and won 5-3 to add a point to each of the win and loss columns in its EDC record. Hunter Remmick and Parker Brodina both gave strong, deep outings on the mound to fuel Devils Lake.
Sheyenne was the preseason No. 3 in the EDC. It features Hudson Dinger, the preseason highest-ranked junior in the Dakotas by Perfect Game, and catcher Jaxon Zavadil, the preseason highest-ranked senior in North Dakota.
“That’s a very good team we played.” Firebirds head coach Brent Luehring said. “I thought we couldn’t pitch it any better than we did today, to be honest with you… We’re in a stretch here between Friday, Saturday and turn-around Tuesday where we’ve got six points up in five days. And we’ll take any points we can get just to keep adding on to our win column.”
Devils Lake’s offense has been fairly up-and-down this season. The team OPS recently dipped below .700 after a hot stretch, but it’s shown a complete and well-rounded lineup at times with a knack for getting on base. The pitching, meanwhile, had allowed just seven runs in the last five games entering Friday.
The latest performance ended up staying mostly in line with these trends — the offense took a while to get going, but the pitching was nails nearly all evening.
Game 1: Sheyenne 3, Devils Lake 1 (9 innings)
Sheyenne starter Parker Henrich pitched a nine-inning complete game in a contest the Firebirds dropped in extras. He allowed one earned run on seven hits and two walks while striking out 10. He threw 117 pitches, with 77 for strikes.
Remmick was tremendous in his own right, dueling Henrich into the ninth. He allowed three runs — all unearned — in 8 1/3 innings. He kept his pitch count manageable with no strikeouts and no unintentional walks during regulation. Overall, he walked two (one intentional) while allowing six hits and throwing 109 pitches (64 for strikes).
“I’m so happy. He threw the ball great,” Luehring said. “It’s a senior showing up at home and doing what we ask of him.”
Will Heilman briefly played hero, tying the game with Devils Lake down to its last out in the seventh. But the Mustangs had the upper hand in the eventual ninth inning.
Sheyenne’s two state-ranked players made an immediate impact in the second inning as the Mustangs struck first. Dinger didn’t quite hit a dinger, but he came close with a deep double to left-center field. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Zavadil.
The Firebirds got something going against Henrich in the bottom half. Trason Beck legged out a deep ground ball to the shortstop, and Remmick stayed hot at the plate with a single. Remmick came into the game batting .384.
The inning ended on a groundout by Mason Palmer, atypically batting from the left side. He usually hits, throws and pitches right-handed. Palmer was the team’s hits leader last summer, but he’s recently been bumped down to the eight-hole while in a 2-for-24 slump.
“There ain’t nobody harder on himself than him,” Luehring said.
Luehring said Palmer used to switch-hit when he was younger. For the last two years or so, he’d zeroed in on hitting from his dominant side.
“It’s just trying not to confuse himself,” Luehring said. “And to be honest, hitting takes the most time in practice, so it’s hard to get the appropriate amount of reps on each side. So yeah, he’s the type of kid where when it comes down to it, I know he’s gonna put a good at-bat together and put a good swing together. And hopefully he can get in a groove.”
Remmick retired 12 Mustangs in a row, eight via groundouts. The streak was broken by a leadoff single from short-statured nine-hitter James Buffington, much to the enjoyment of the Sheyenne visiting section and dugout. But Remmick retired Sheyenne’s top three hitters in order to keep Devils Lake within a run.
“I knew that Hunter was gonna throw the ball over the plate,” Luehring said. “And when he locates his curveball for a strike and just keeps them off balance enough, he’s got enough tilt where he gets a lot of ground balls.”
The Firebirds had a couple more chances to score but couldn’t capitalize. Taydon Triepke drew a leadoff walk but was stranded at third base in the third inning. Beck and Remmick each recorded another hit but were stranded in the fourth. A leadoff single by Triepke was wasted in the fifth, and Devils Lake got nothing more than a one-out walk from Brodina in the sixth.
Remmick cruised through a 1-2-3 seventh. His pitch count was still at 82. But he was in line for the loss with Devils Lake down to its last chance.
The Firebirds’ first two hitters went down in the bottom half. Max Palmer and Fausten Olson, though, kept the game alive with simple, clean strokes for singles.
It came down to Heilman, who wasted no time with a first-pitch single into left field. A run scored to tie the game and bring free baseball to DLYA Field. Heilman had been 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before the hit.
“Will got the monkey off his back a little bit there,” Luehring said.
The seven innings were completed in only a tick over an hour.
Remmick had to contend with a leadoff hit in the eighth, which moved to third on a bunt and a groundout. He intentionally walked leadoff hitter Landon Zink, a strategy that worked out as he got Jordan Clemenson to fly out on a diving catch by Triepke.
The Sheyenne fans vocally disagreed with the call being a catch. Head coach Jason Beilke went out to argue, and there was some scattered tension as the Firebirds retook the field. The Mustangs were adamant about Firebird batters getting in the box quicker.
Devils Lake went down in order in the bottom of the eighth, sending the game to another extra inning. Remmick surrendered a leadoff hit again in the ninth, and this time, he couldn’t keep the Mustangs at bay. Brodina misplayed a hard grounder for an error, and Dinger bunted the runners into scoring position with one out.
Zavadil struck again with a single to the left side. Sheyenne had a 2-1 lead with both RBIs belonging to Zavadil. After Remmick issued his first unintentional walk of the day, Luehring opted to pull him after a hard-fought evening on the mound.
The left-handed Triepke took over and allowed a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. But he stranded the bases loaded to keep Devils Lake in it.
The Firebirds had little answer in the final frame, going down 1-2-3 with two strikeouts. Henrich finished off his masterpiece, overcoming Devils Lake’s brief heroics in the seventh that extended the game by 45 minutes.
Game 2: Devils Lake 5, Sheyenne 3
It wasn’t quite as pristine as his previous two, but Brodina threw his third complete game in as many outings. He had to grind for this one, throwing 116 pitches (72 strikes) while allowing three runs on seven hits and three walks. He struck out three.
Brodina came into the game with no earned runs allowed in 14 innings so far this year. His strikeout numbers haven’t necessarily been where they were in the past, with eight entering the day, but he’s rounded nicely back into form after the end of last year.
He owns a 1.29 ERA in 21 innings now, with 11 strikeouts compared to five walks.
“I think you’re starting to see the evolution of Parker, not trying to strike out everybody and just pitch to contact and trust the guys behind him,” Luehring said. “I think in his younger days, he’s like, ‘I’ve gotta do it all myself.’”
A double and two walks loaded the bases in the top of the first against Brodina, but Olson made a running catch to keep the Mustangs off the board.
Sheyenne had a messy first inning. Starter Parker Rolfson walked the first two batters he faced, and he was bailed out by a pickoff of Max Palmer at second. But Beck hustled out an infield single, and Brodina came up clutch to help his own cause. He lined a single into deep right field, and the right fielder bobbled it to let two runs score.
Rolfson fielded a soft dribbler from Ben Larson and threw it wildly past first base for another error. Brodina had a cushion now, his team leading 3-0 after one inning. He worked around a two-out single to pitch a scoreless top of the second.
Devils Lake got a nice little two-out rally in the bottom of the second. Olson singled and stole second, then scored on a clutch hit by Heilman. Disaster struck the Mustangs again as the first baseman completely flubbed a ground ball, then threw it away to bring in a fifth Firebird run.
But the traffic against Brodina finally caught up to him in the third inning. Three singles loaded the bases — and then a long single to right field oddly scored all three runs, cutting Devils Lake’s lead to 5-3.
That score ended up holding, with all the run production coming in the first three innings. Clemenson went the rest of the way for Sheyenne, allowing just one hit in four scoreless innings.
Mason Palmer switched back to his natural right side for the nightcap. He popped out to end the first inning, but lined a hanging curveball up the middle for a base hit in the third. He had the only Devils Lake hit after the second inning.
Brodina worked around a runner in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The Firebirds turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the sixth. Brodina’s best inning was his last, despite clearly showing signs of fatigue. He fell behind all three batters, yet retired each of them. He ended the game with a swinging strikeout on his curveball to close out the 5-3 win.
Still sitting in fourth place, the Firebirds move onto another challenge in second-place Fargo South (10-5, 10-1) on Saturday at Fargo Davies High School. It’s another doubleheader where each game counts for one point, starting at 1 p.m.
“They put the ball in play pretty well. They’ve got a pretty deep pitching staff,” Luehring said. “They’re a much-improved team. We were able to get them twice last year, so I’m sure there’s some revenge factor. And yeah, we want to play the best teams, and we want to compete against the best. We think we can. I think the scores have shown we can play against anybody. We’ve just gotta keep putting it together and keep grinding, and try to make that EDC tournament [which has eight seeds].”
