Parker Simon
DEVILS LAKE — Friday’s matchup was about as good as you’ll see in North Dakota Class B Legion baseball.
It was Cando Post 79 against the Devils Lake B team — the two squads that battled each other for a state tournament spot last summer. It was a close, competitive contest that featured arguments from both dugouts, wacky plays and game-altering momentum swings. In the end, Cando (2-2, 2-0) squeezed out a 3-2 win over the Storm (3-1, 0-1) at DLYA Field.
“We knew that was gonna be a battle coming in,” Bearcats head coach Jesse Vote said. “A little disappointed; we had a couple execution bunts that we needed to get down, and the game probably would have been a little different story there. But sometimes that happens, and we’ve gotta weather through it. I thought the kids competed, and we got the job done.”
To start, Parker Simon dueled with Devils Lake’s Cayden McCarthy. Simon, 19, posted a 3.51 ERA as a freshman this spring for Lake Region State College. He also grabbed Mon-Dak Pitcher of the Week honors. McCarthy is a dual player for Devils Lake’s A and B teams, with a lively arm that he’s been trying to hone the consistency on. When he’s at his best, he’s shown an ability to compete with varsity and A-level hitters.
And behind the plate as the umpire was Simon Beach, a former teammate of both Simon (LRSC) and McCarthy (last year’s Storm A team).
Simon, despite having to grind through the middle innings, threw a complete-game one-hitter. He struck out six and walked four, allowing two runs (one earned). Talan Gregory kept Devils Lake in it, navigating six walks to allow just one unearned run in 4 2/3 innings of relief.
“We got some guys on base and we executed some runs,” Storm head coach Dustin Brodina said. “We just didn’t get enough.”
The first four outs of the evening were all strikeouts. Simon helped his own cause with a hustle double in the top of the first, but McCarthy struck out the side — including a 3-2 fastball on the outer edge to punch out Karsen Simon, Parker’s twin brother.
Ian Westlind led off the second inning with a soft infield hit to shortstop. Ben Brodina fielded it, but there was no chance at getting the runner. Brodina came to the rescue later in the inning, diving to snare a liner and strand Westlind at second base.
Simon, meanwhile, looked in control early on. He fired a 1-2-3 first inning. Henley Driessen, who’s been swinging a hot bat, was Devils Lake’s first baserunner with a one-out walk in the second. He stole both second and third base. But Simon recorded his second strikeout, then induced a soft comebacker to escape trouble.
“We just wanted to tell these guys to have the same approach,” Brodina said. “Be confident up there, regardless of how fast it’s coming in or if he’s throwing curveballs. That ball’s still gotta cross the plate. And attack it.”
McCarthy, who stranded three runners over the first two innings, couldn’t find the same success in the third. Hunter Hagler drew a leadoff walk, then stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw. Vote went out to argue with Beach about McCarthy coming set while batter Brody Svir was out of the box.
“You’re deceiving the runner if you’re already in the set position,” Vote said.
Svir drew first blood with an RBI single. P. Simon added another with a sacrifice fly, and Cando took a 2-0 lead.
McCarthy came out after issuing his second walk of the frame. He was on a pitch count in anticipation of a PBR tryout on Monday. He threw 47 pitches (29 strikes) while allowing two runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Gregory took over. He issued another walk but was able to put the frame to bed.
After a rough top of the third, Devils Lake got on the board in the bottom half. Brodina walked and stole second, then raced around the bases to score on a single by Alex Hammond. Simon struck out McCarthy to end the inning, clinging to a 2-1 lead.
But Cando immediately got a run back on some uncharacteristically sloppy play by Devils Lake. Brodina booted a soft ground ball — a tough play, but still ruled an error on Brodina to allow Alec Peyerl to reach. Peyerl, after stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch, scored on a throwing error by catcher Riley Brenno-Quale.
Gregory picked off Hagler to help quiet the Cando bats.
Simon, working with a 3-1 advantage, got into his own mess in the bottom half of the inning. He attempted a long throw on a soft roller up the third-base line by Driessen, and he threw it away for an error. He then made an errant pickoff throw — ruled a missed-catch error on the first baseman, Westlind. Driessen got to second, but Coach Brodina voiced adamantly that he could have gotten to third if he’d hustled earlier.
“We want to take every single base we can,” Brodina said. “And if we’re not taking advantage, then we’re not doing something right. So we’ve gotta be better at that. Baserunning is a big thing… But it’s only the fourth game, so some of the guys are still learning. And we’ll get there.”
Driessen stole third on ball four to Isaac Woodhull, and Woodhull managed to get to second on the same play. Jaxon Strong then drove in a run with a well-executed sacrifice bunt. Simon, after all the traffic around him, struck out Lakin Ronningen to hold onto the 3-2 lead.
P. Simon drew a leadoff walk in the fifth against Gregory, but he was left on third. On a 3-2 pitch to his brother Karsen, the first-base umpire ruled that he didn’t go around on a check swing. As the crowd of Storm fans voiced its displeasure, Coach Brodina came out to argue with Beach, then retreated back to the dugout grumbling about the call.
In the bottom of the fifth, Simon had his most relaxing inning since the first. He collected his sixth strikeout in a 1-2-3 frame.
“I think at times, he tries too hard,” Vote said. “He’s just gotta get himself in a rhythm. And when he does that, he’s fine.”
Gregory issued two walks to start the sixth, immediately putting himself in a jam. But he was bailed out on an enormous blunder by Sean Freund, who was doubled off second base on a popout to catcher Brenno-Quale.
Gregory was pumped. He pointed to both Brenno-Quale and shortstop Brodina to commend their efforts.
“Tuesday night, he was a little more in control. He was a little wild tonight,” Coach Brodina said of Gregory. “But he got the outs when he needed it… The defense was behind him, and they made the plays.”
With Devils Lake still down a run, the next frame started the same way: with a leadoff walk, this time to McCarthy. He stole second, and Gregory bunted him to third. Driessen bunted, too, but Cando was able to get the out at first and hold McCarthy at third. Coach Brodina argued that the ball hit Driessen’s foot, and that the Cando dugout even acknowledged it. But the umpires couldn’t be convinced to change the ruling.
Gauge Driessen — Henley’s older brother and a former Devils Lake player — made a nice running catch in left field on a hard-hit ball by Woodhull for the third out of the sixth. The plentiful Cando crowd let out a roar of cheers.
“It’s tough to pitch to these kids. They’re scrappy,” Simon said. “They’re gonna put the ball in play or make you think… Gotta hit some spots. Can’t have so many walks.”
Gregory issued his sixth walk of the game to lead off the seventh. Svir, trying to hype up his dugout, stole second.
Gregory struck out the next two batters, then induced a ground ball up the middle. The ball bounced off the second-base bag, but somehow, Brodina snatched it and threw to first. He roared as he joined his team back in the dugout.
“He’s a gamer,” Coach Brodina said of his son. “He wants to make the play, and he wants to be that guy.”
But Simon wouldn’t let the Devils Lake offense respond. He dove towards the first-base line to finish a 1-2-3 seventh with a gutsy catch. He finished strong by retiring the last six batters.
“Me and Ian [Westlind] were kind of chuckling about that. It was a tough play,” Simon said. “It kind of kept me up, though, because I had a really bad at-bat before that. So it was just a nice little confidence booster there, and let the crowd know that we’re still the top dog.”
The five-inning non-counter
The teams followed by playing a five-inning game that Devils Lake won in four innings, 18-8. The game unofficially featured nine errors, 17 walks and two hit batsmen.
Cando went up 3-0 right away on RBI hits from Peyerl and Levi Borstad. But the Storm batted around in the first two innings to blow it open.
Devils Lake scored six in the bottom of the first with the help of three errors. Woodhull had an RBI single, while Leiphon and Kraft each drew an RBI walk. Mack Elsperger gave Devils Lake the lead with a sacrifice fly, and Brodina added two with a single as the ninth batter of the inning.
The Storm added seven more in the second to make it 13-3. They drew five walks in the inning — two against starter Borstad and the other three against Hagler. Andrew Hammond added a two-run single to help widen the gap to 10. The inning finally ended after a throwdown to the plate on a hit to the outfield.
Cando seemingly batted out of order, as Moxon Brehm didn’t record a plate appearance the first time through the lineup. He was batting in the top of the first when the frame ended on a caught-stealing, and he didn’t return to the plate in the second inning. Nobody in the game noticed or pointed it out, so nothing was ever done about it. Only eight Cando hitters batted the first time through.
In Brehm’s first actual trip to the plate, he hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 13-4 in the third inning.
Cando got four more back in the fourth on a single and four consecutive free passes. Brodina came in and surrendered two baserunners but struck out the final three batters of the frame.
“The second game kind of got away from us, and we talked about not being complacent,” Coach Brodina said. “Especially with a 10-run lead, to still be focused… We kind of let the foot off the gas pedal in that second game.”
For Cando, Hagler recorded four strikeouts in his outing, but he only got three total outs as there was a dropped third strike in the bottom of the fourth. He exited after two more walks.
Pitching in relief, Westlind issued three consecutive free passes to cut the lead to 16-8. He got only one out. Gregory greeted Rylen Anderson with a two-run single to walk it off by run rule, 18-8.
“They’re not chasing balls. They’re really disciplined, which is good,” Brodina said. “And putting the ball in play when it’s there.”
The next action for the Devils Lake B team is on Monday at 5 p.m. against the New Rockford American Legion Post #30 Black Sox.
