Photo by Noah Clooten
Devils Lake has never won a Class A state baseball championship. It hasn’t been to the tournament since 2010.
But for the second straight year, the Firebirds (8-8, 8-8) have a competitive team that’s making some noise in the EDC. As of Thursday, they sit in sixth place out of 12 teams in the conference.
Last year’s team fell one game short of ending the decade-plus-long drought. This year’s team is making its own strong case — but there are a number of storylines to follow and questions to answer as the spring season reaches its final few weeks.
Lineup is deep and well-balanced, but missing some of last year’s thump
Devils Lake’s hitters might just be the biggest X factor for this team to make a run.
The question heading into the year was how they would do without Jackson Baeth and Beau Brodina, two of last year’s graduates who were arguably their best two hitters. Despite losing those guys, they returned a large group of talented kids overall, and the results have been up-and-down.
The good news is that the Firebirds have a very balanced offense. Going down one through nine in the order, there’s no particular weak spot. Even Taydon Triepke, the nine-hitter, is batting .256 with a .341 OBP and six RBIs.
Mason Palmer’s struggles have been surprising — one of the team’s best hitters last year, he started this season in a 2-for-29 slump. But he has a proven track record and has started to get going lately, with seven hits in his last 15 at-bats. Head coach Brent Luehring moved him down to the eight-spot, where he’s been able to take some of the pressure off.
Hunter Remmick, who earned a starting spot with his performance last summer, has been Devils Lake’s best hitter. Typically batting the middle of the order, he’s hitting .386 with three doubles and an .871 OPS, as of Thursday. Max Palmer has also picked up some of his twin brother’s slack, with an average of .289 (which was above .300 before Tuesday’s non-counter loss to West Fargo Horace) and an OBP of .373.
Catcher Trason Beck has hit for a solid .717 OPS, while Fausten Olson has gotten on base at a .354 clip. Sophomore Will Heilman has seen an increased role, moving into the three-hole. It’s paid off with a .327 average. Something to watch with Heilman is his strikeout-to-walk ratio; as of Thursday, he’s punching out 28.3% of the time and walking only 1.9% of the time.
All of that is valuable — but Devils Lake’s overall offensive numbers are still down compared to last year. Curiously, the team batting average is actually higher this year — .269 compared to .255 — but the Firebirds are walking less (14.9% to 10.3%) and striking out more (17.9% to 19.96%). They collected four home runs last year (three by Baeth), and are yet to hit one over the wall this year. The team OPS, which was .720 last season, has slipped to .684.
Naturally, the Firebirds have struggled to maintain last year’s levels without Baeth or Brodina. They had nine players with double-digit walk rates last season, and only four this season. It’s still a good offense, but one that overall hasn’t been quite as explosive as last year’s group.
A few of their EDC losses have been low-scoring affairs that just a little bit of extra offense could have boosted into wins — a 3-2 loss to Shanley, a 3-1 loss to West Fargo Sheyenne, a 4-2 loss to Fargo South and a 4-1 loss to West Fargo Horace.
Starting pitching has been outstanding as of late
The slightly quieter offense has meant the pitching has needed to step up.
And, recently, it has.
A couple of non-counter losses have skewed the team ERA — which sits at 4.83 but doesn’t tell the whole story. The Firebirds knew coming in that they were returning all of last spring’s pitchers, and the corps has really begun to take shape lately. They’ve allowed just 10 earned runs in their last nine conference games.
The rotation is spearheaded by three seniors: Parker Brodina, Ben Larson and Remmick.
Brodina was one of the biggest pitchers to watch coming into the season, considering he started so strong last year but faltered near the end. And he’s been phenomenal. He’s pitched a complete game in all three of his starts, throwing 21 innings with just four runs (three earned) allowed. He didn’t permit an earned run in either of his first two starts, and he came within one out of a no-hitter.
He’s doing it with a less overpowering, more crafty approach. Last year, he struck out 36 in 36 innings, and this year, he only has 11 strikeouts in 21 innings. Luehring has talked multiple times about how he’s developed into a different type of pitcher, one who’s been able to pitch to contact rather than trying to throw it past everybody. And it’s working.
Next in line is Larson. He had, by his own admission, a “rocky” initial start against first-place Fargo Davies where he allowed four runs in four innings. Then he went and threw a no-hitter against Wahpeton. He backed it up with seven innings of one-run ball against second-place Fargo South.
Last season, Larson threw a team-high 33 innings and posted a 2.45 ERA. He’s sitting at 2.50 right now in 18 innings. He’s started striking out a lot more guys, too, with 14 already this season after only 10 all of last season.
Then there’s Remmick, an expert in inducing soft contact. His most recent outing saw him pitch 8 1/3 innings while surrendering three runs, all unearned. That was despite zero strikeouts. He owns a 1.56 ERA after posting a 2.84 last spring. He’s a model of craftiness and consistency, nicely completing the Firebirds’ three-headed monster.
But the pitching staff has some depth, too. Mason Palmer, like last year, hasn’t gotten a ton of innings, but he’s arguably the team’s best pitcher when he’s at the top of his game. His ERA was 1.93 last spring in 18 2/3 innings, with a notable 25 strikeouts (which translates to 12.05 per nine).
Palmer struggled in his first start this year but bounced back nicely in his second, with one earned run in five innings. He only has 9 1/3 total innings on the mound — with Luehring valuing his shortstop defense — but he has a team-high 14 strikeouts in those innings. All of that makes him probably the best No. 4 starter in the state.
Triepke is also somewhat of a secret weapon for Devils Lake on the mound, providing some soft-tossing lefty action. He usually comes out of the bullpen but can also start, and doesn’t blow anybody away but tends to keep his ERA pretty shiny. He really opened eyes last summer with a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 innings, and he sits at 3.52 in 7 2/3 so far this spring.
Heilman is another one who’s fairly low on a crowded depth chart, but he seems to perform well every time he’s given a chance. He pitched four scoreless innings last spring, then threw to a 2.14 ERA in 21 innings last summer. He’s thrown a couple more gems this year, including a complete-game victory with only one run allowed against fourth-place Grand Forks Red River. He’s yet another weapon up Devils Lake’s sleeve for a potential deep playoff run.
The primary arms are backed by Cayden McCarthy, Gauge Driessen and Max Palmer. McCarthy’s a sophomore with a strong arm, striking out nine in 7 2/3 innings. Driessen has remarkably returned from his spinal cord injury and struck out 10 in 5 2/3 innings. All three pitchers have gotten hit around at times, but have shined at others in the past. They just continue to make the Firebirds’ pitching staff deeper and deeper.
This will be critical as the games get more meaningful and teams have to go further into their bullpens. Devils Lake already knows it has the pieces to step up in the case of emergency, or if the team is facing elimination.
Firebirds will close the regular season against some of the EDC’s weaker teams
A thrilling 4-1 win over Fargo South on May 3, handing the Bruins just their second EDC loss of the season, was followed up by a 4-2 loss to the same team, and then a two-point EDC loss of 4-1 to third-place West Fargo Horace.
The good news in that department is that the top EDC opponents are in the past, at least for the regular season. Devils Lake travels to play Valley City (1-10, 2-12) in a pair of one-point games on Friday. It then hosts Grand Forks Central (5-11, 2-14) in a two-point game on Tuesday the 13th before completing the regular season in a May 16 two-point road game against Fargo North (10-8, 5-9).
The Firebirds have proven they can play with anybody. Fargo Davies, the top team in the conference, is 17-1 in EDC play, with that “1” coming against none other than Devils Lake. The Firebirds split doubleheaders with each of the top two teams in the EDC. They also beat the fifth-place team and played a competitive game with the third-place team.
And so now, Devils Lake, which swept last-place Wahpeton, gets to play a few of the relatively easier opponents on its schedule. The Firebirds still have to bring their best, of course, but they’ve handled business well enough against the tougher teams that they’re in a good position to wrap things up on a high note.
Devils Lake’s 8-8 EDC record puts it in sixth place. The top eight teams will make the EDC tournament held from May 20-24. The ninth-place team right now is Sheyenne, with a 6-10 EDC record. Theoretically, the Firebirds could still fall out of a postseason spot if they lost all remaining six EDC points. But even a 2-4 finish would likely be enough to stay in the top eight. Even a 1-5 finish would still give them a shot. And they have the luxury of not having to face the EDC’s best teams during this final, critical stretch.
Regardless of who they play, it’ll be important for the Firebirds to try to wrap things up stress-free and to be playing their best baseball in the EDC tournament, where they made a run last year but fell just short of reaching their goal.
