Landon Sundeen (Photos by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — Landon Sundeen had never hit a home run in a game before this summer.
Joining the Devils Lake B team from neighboring Nelson County, he already has two in the last week.
“Two hits in my Storm career, and both hits were home runs,” Sundeen said. “So I guess that’s nice.”
He credited the work he’s put in in the weight room for giving him that extra oomph to hit some long balls.
“And getting the hips in the swing,” Sundeen said. “That’s mainly it.”
The hulking right-handed hitter recently finished his junior year of high school. He began this season as a dual player on the Devils Lake A and B teams, but he’s making an increasingly strong case to make the A team full-time — especially with the A team struggling on offense right now. He’s already made himself at home on his new squad.
“I used to play with these kids back in like fifth or sixth grade, but now they’re different guys, obviously. A fun group,” Sundeen said. “They’re really good at picking me up, and we pick each other up. It’s a lot of fun.”
Sundeen’s second blast of the summer helped lead the Storm (5-1) to a 7-3 win over the New Rockford Post 30 Black Sox (1-3) at DLYA Field on Monday. They added a 7-6 win in the five-inning nightcap in a nice all-around offensive effort.
“[Sundeen]’s confident up there,” Devils Lake head coach Dustin Brodina said. “We talked to all the guys about just stepping in there and being confident.”
Game 1: Devils Lake 7, New Rockford 3
Devils Lake starting pitcher Ben Brodina had his curveball working in the first inning. He used it to get his first strikeout after surrendering an infield hit to Thomas Allmaras. But he left a fastball in the middle to super-senior Connor Knatterud, who lined an RBI single to give New Rockford a 1-0 lead.
Allmaras, who scored the run, was an All-State Second Team selection for New Rockford-Sheyenne this spring. He also started on the mound for the Black Sox on Monday.
A leadoff error led to a run in the bottom of the first as Devils Lake tied it, 1-1. Brodina scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Hammond.
On the mound, Brodina bounced back with a much better second inning. He hit a batter with two outs but otherwise struck out the side.
Devils Lake’s first hit was a soft infield single by Jaxon Strong, following a Talan Gregory walk. Gregory came around to score on a wild pitch to put the Storm in front 2-1. Brodina gave one a ride that was caught by center fielder Knatterud to end the frame — but the Storm did what they needed to do to manufacture a run in each of the first two innings.
Then, in the third, it took them just one swing to double that total. Sundeen blasted one to left field, just as he did against Mayville/Portland on June 3. It bounced off the light tower for a home run. It was a two-run shot to extend Devils Lake’s lead to 4-1.
“Just put the ball in play,” Sundeen said of his approach. “And Coach Brodina tells me to keep my head inside. Look to help the swing out a little bit.”
Sundeen had grounded out to shortstop in his first at-bat. He eventually singled in Monday’s nightcap, but before then, he hadn’t recorded any non-homer hits.
“We talked about learning from it and then flushing it away,” Brodina said. “He had kind of a bad at-bat the first time… And I said, ‘You’ll get it the next time.’”
B. Brodina got through 3 2/3 strong innings on the mound before his dad replaced him with Lakin Ronningen. The young Brodina threw 58 pitches (36 strikes). He struck out five and didn’t walk anyone, allowing just one run on three hits.
And he did all that after participating in a PBR tryout all the way down in Fargo earlier in the day.
“I thought he did a really good job,” Coach Brodina said. “His arm was a little sore [from the PBR tryout], but he said, ‘I’m good to go.’… I thought he did a good job throwing strikes.”
Brodina singled in Ronningen in the bottom of the fourth. Then Devils Lake got an RBI double from Tayven Wiberg, who returned on Monday after getting a cortisone shot in his knee. Wiberg reached base in each of his first three plate appearances — including the hit that extended the Storm’s lead to 6-1.
“When you’ve got Benny and then Tayven, back-to-back, those guys are really smart hitters and smart baserunners,” Coach Brodina said. “And they take advantage of every little mistake that other teams do. And they manufacture runs when they’re not even looking.”
For the Black Sox, Knatterud singled in each of his first three trips to the plate. The third one got a run back for New Rockford in the fourth, making it 6-2. The Black Sox went on to load the bases, but Ronningen got a strikeout to hold the lead at four.
Third baseman Easton Simon, a state-champion quarterback for the NR-S football team, made a couple of nice plays in a scoreless fifth for Allmaras. It was the first zero on the board in favor of the Black Sox. Henley Driessen snuck one through the left side for his second hit of the game, but a long throw from Simon ended the inning.
New Rockford loaded the bases again in the sixth, all with two outs. Ronningen’s evening on the mound came to an end after issuing back-to-back walks, having thrown two-plus innings on 60 pitches.
Isaac Woodhull retired Knatterud for the first time. He got him to ground into a hard fielder’s choice to dodge a massive bullet.
Devils Lake added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Ronningen reached on an error, then scored on a hard single up the middle by Brodina. The Storm had a 7-2 lead going into the seventh.
The Black Sox shot back with their own home run, a leadoff blast by Alex Weisenburger. But Sundeen’s prior shot and the entire Devils Lake crew proved supreme as Woodhull finished off a four-run victory.
Game 2: Devils Lake 7, New Rockford 6 (5 innings)
The Storm fended off a third-inning comeback from the Sox to take the nightcap.
Allmaras hit a leadoff triple and got New Rockford on the board first again against Alex Hammond. But the Storm scratched out two runs to swing back ahead, 2-1, in the bottom of the first. Sundeen stayed hot with a hard-hit single to left. He and Isaac Kraft both scored in the frame as Devils Lake executed a pair of double steals.
Knatterud struggled with command for New Rockford. He walked four over the first two innings. After a bunt hit by Kraft loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, Devils Lake rallied for three more runs to make it 5-1. Andrew Hammond had an RBI single, and Sundeen added a sacrifice fly. Kraft and Hammond pulled off the third double steal of the game for the third run of the inning.
“We really want to take advantage of the bases,” Brodina said. “And teach these guys that, hey, if teams are sleeping, if they’re not gonna be paying attention, we’re gonna take every base that we can and really push the limits.”
But Alex Hammond labored in the top of the third. It started with back-to-back walks. Cayden McCarthy missed a fly ball in right field, Simon hit a two-run single and Kason Nass drew an RBI walk. After the game was knotted up at 5-5, Brodina had seen enough and replaced Hammond with Strong. The frame finally ended after 10 batters.
Finley Wirth led off the bottom of the third with a triple to right field. But he was picked off as the teams stayed at a standstill.
Weisenburger took over on the mound for Knatterud, who walked five in three innings. And the Storm went back to keeping the gears turning. Riley Brenno-Quale drew a leadoff walk, then stole second and moved to third on an errant throw. Andrew Hammond brought him home with a single to shallow center, giving the Storm the lead back.
Devils Lake added an insurance run on a throwing error by the third baseman to make it 7-5.
Strong worked around two baserunners in the fourth. He got into some hot water in the fifth, giving up a two-out, run-scoring single after issuing a pair of walks. An error allowed the go-ahead runs to move into scoring position.
Strong, though, induced a flyout to left field to let Devils Lake fans breathe a sigh of relief and head home happy.
The Storm jump right back into action in a region matchup with Rugby on the road Tuesday at 5 p.m. The A team, meanwhile, plays its first home game of the summer at the same time against Grafton Post 41.
