Ben Larson
DEVILS LAKE — Tuesday’s setup perhaps wasn’t the most ideal — there were howling winds that sounded like singing, and Mason Palmer and Will Heilman were at a football camp. The Storm A squad carried just 10 kids.
But Devils Lake, debuting some new home whites, took care of business in all facets of the game. The Storm (2-4) grabbed their first win of the summer, taking down Grafton Post 41 (3-2) by a score of 5-1. Ben Larson threw a complete game, Brody Rainsberry shined in the field and the offense put together a couple of timely rallies. Trason Beck had a late blow to give Devils Lake a cushion. The game was done in an efficient hour and 22 minutes.
They added a 10-0 win in the five-inning nightcap.
“Good to get off the schneid,” Storm coach Brent Luehring said.
Game 1: Devils Lake 5, Grafton 1
Larson struck out four, walked two and allowed four hits in seven innings of one run-ball.
“I thought he was sharp,” Luehring said. “He was a lot better starting than he was last Wednesday [four runs in six innings]. So he’s just gonna keep getting the ball once a week, all the way till the tournament.”
Landon Sundeen earned a well-deserved — and necessary — promotion to the A team after hitting two home runs in the last week for the B team. He went 1-for-3 with a strikeout. With Taydon Triepke playing right field and not hitting, all 10 players were in the starting lineup.
The wind made an impact almost immediately. Second baseman Max Palmer dropped a popup in shallow right field for a two-base error. Larson, though, induced a couple of groundouts to throw a scoreless opening frame.
And that’s the way the early part of this game went. Larson, arguably Devils Lake’s most reliable pitcher, threw three hitless innings with eight straight retired to start his outing.
The Spoilers brought their best against Devils Lake in Tony Villarreal, a super-senior returning to Legion ball for his last year of eligibility. He plays baseball for Mayville State University, where Larson will be his teammate next year. He’s also a familiar face from basketball, as one of the starting five on the Grafton team that finished third in the 2024 state tournament.
Villarreal had some hard run on his fastball with a firm three-quarters delivery. He tied up Storm hitters and got them off balance. He retired the first 10 batters he faced, with a strikeout in each of the first three innings. Just 30 minutes of game time had passed through those three innings.
Grafton finally cracked Larson in the fourth. Villarreal drew a leadoff walk, then was caught stealing by Trason Beck. But, with two outs, Ty Storey and Kyan Burns knocked the first two hits of the game for either team. Soren Olson added an RBI single up the middle. The frame ended on a rundown between second and third, with the Spoilers now leading 1-0.
Devils Lake’s first hit came with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Fausten Olson worked a full count and then hit a ground ball up the middle. Shortstop Brody Lillemoen — another familiar basketball foe — used his tall, lanky frame to get to the ball, but he had no chance at the out.
And then the Storm, who had looked flummoxed early on, cracked Villarreal. Rainsberry whacked a long double to center field to put two in scoring position. Hunter Remmick grounded one deep in the hole to Lillemoen to tie it up. Beck came up clutch with two outs, lining a single into left field. All of a sudden, Devils Lake led 2-1.
“A lot of our guys were kind of pounding into their heads to look for the ball away and try to drive the ball away,” Luehring said. “So we told them, early in the count, if it’s in on you, you’ve just gotta take it. You can’t get yourself out in there. And he finally started making some mistakes on the outer half.”
Villarreal wound up throwing five innings of two-run ball on four hits. He struck out three and walked one.
With Mason Palmer at football, Rainsberry was the Storm’s starting shortstop. He and Sundeen are both from neighboring Nelson County.
Rainsberry made all three plays in a 1-2-3 fifth inning for Larson. The second of those three was an incredible dive up the middle and throw from his knees to somehow retire Wes Johnson. Rainsberry appeared to let out some emotion as he gathered himself back to his feet.
“He saved my butt a lot,” Larson said. “Especially with Mason gone, it was good to know we have people back there that can make those plays, too. And that was a spectacular play.”
The first two Grafton hitters got on against Larson in the sixth. But he escaped trouble with a strikeout and a double play.
“The zone was kind of shrinking towards the end of the game, but nothing I can do about that,” Larson said. “I just had to zone in and strike people out…and my guys had to make plays.”
Devils Lake got three insurance runs against Kyler Droog — another basketball star and future teammate of Larson’s — in the bottom of the sixth. First Droog had trouble with the strike zone, issuing walks to Rainsberry and Remmick. Beck smacked a triple to right-center to drive in both runners.
Beck nearly collided at third with Remmick, who initially held up at third but realized he had to run after seeing Beck sprinting full-speed in his direction. The Spoilers, though, threw to third base instead of the plate and bailed out the Storm. Beck scored on a throwing error by Droog for the third run of the frame.
Larson and Droog are going to be suitemates in Mayville next year.
“It’s kind of cool that we pull out a win against him, because we’re friends and stuff like that,” Larson said. “Just a competitive game.”
Up 5-1, Larson got the first two outs of the seventh inning on two pitches. He ended the game fittingly — with a groundout to Rainsberry. The talented shortstop threw casually to first to finish off the game in luxurious fashion.
“I was definitely excited to give him a crack there,” Luehring said of Rainsberry. “I think it gave the guys confidence that we can put anybody there.”
Game 2: Devils Lake 10, Grafton 0 (4 innings)
The Storm crushed the Spoilers in a run-rule, four-inning win to finish the night.
The first five batters of the game singled for Devils Lake. Easton Kraft loaded the bases with a walk, and Larson added a two-run double to make it 5-0. Pitcher Burns finally got an out after 30 pitches. He ended up striking out Triepke and Ben Brodina to strand two in scoring position.
Grafton brought in lefty Chase Woinarowicz for the second inning. With two outs, Remmick reached on an error, and Beck drove one to the right-center gap for an RBI double. Beck scored on a wild pitch to run the score up to 7-0.
Remmick, meanwhile, sailed on the mound for the Storm. He retired the first seven batters he faced, which included four consecutive strikeouts. He issued a one-out walk in the third but collected six punchouts through three innings.
Another two-out error kept the third inning alive for the Storm offense. Once again, Devils Lake capitalized, this time on an RBI double by Rainsberry. Remmick added a bloop single to right field to make it 9-0.
The Storm walked it off in the fourth. Kraft led off with a double and came around to score on Sundeen’s sacrifice fly. Triepke helped them to the finish line with a scoreless top of the fourth.
“The goal was to get [Remmick] some work, and get Taydon some work,” Luehring said. “And we’ll bring back Hunter this weekend, possibly. And yeah, it was good. [Remmick] threw well. I didn’t think he was as sharp as he was in Minot, but he was good enough.”
Devils Lake now travels to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to play a round-robin tournament with teams from South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska from June 13-15. The B team will simultaneously be playing a tournament in Grand Forks.
