Photo by Noah Clooten
The Devils Lake-area Legion baseball teams gained fire heading into the Fourth of July break last week.
Here’s a rundown of how they performed.
Devils Lake Storm A
It’s hard to be much hotter than the Storm A team is right now.
They played four games over Tuesday and Wednesday and won all four in dominant fashion. At one point, they’d thrown 22 consecutive scoreless innings as a team. In fact, they’d gone 46 innings without allowing an unearned run, when including June 27’s 3-2, 12-inning loss to Minot.
Devils Lake swept a doubleheader over Casselton, 5-0 and 10-0, on Tuesday. Then it won both games over the West Fargo Vets, 10-0 and 10-3, on Wednesday. The Storm improved to 18-7 overall, having won 18 of their last 21 games since an 0-4 start. Casselton and West Fargo are both conference opponents, so Devils Lake is now 10-2 in conference play after an 0-2 start.
The Storm have completely turned their season around, and then some.
Devils Lake was temporarily without Brody Rainsberry, but its big three got it done on the mound.
Hunter Remmick threw a seven-inning, three-hit shutout on Tuesday. He struck out four and didn’t walk anyone. His ERA on the summer is down to an even 2.00 over 27 innings.
Mason Palmer threw six shutout frames in the nightcap on Tuesday, striking out seven and walking two. He still hasn’t allowed a run in 19 innings pitched this summer. He’s averaging more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings, and has only allowed seven total hits.
Ben Larson threw six scoreless in the 10-0 win over West Fargo on Wednesday. He struck out five and didn’t walk anybody. He now leads the team in innings with 32 1/3, with a 1.95 ERA behind it. He’s walking fewer than two batters per nine innings.
Will Heilman pitched in Rainsberry’s place and gave a solid six-inning, two-run effort. He owns a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings this summer as essentially the fifth man in a stacked rotation.
Devils Lake’s team ERA is down to a dominant 2.55 over nearly 160 innings. The Storm haven’t allowed more than four runs in a game since June 15 in Sioux Falls, in an 8-0 loss that had no bearing on the tournament standings.
Offensively, they’re clicking in full gear. They’ve scored exactly 10 runs in each of the last three games. Remmick had five hits over the two 10-0 games, including two doubles and a triple. Mason Palmer has led the way with a .390 average and 1.002 OPS, and Fausten Olson and Trason Beck have stayed steady. Hitters like Larson and Easton Kraft have been pesky towards the bottom of the lineup. Ben Brodina also broke out in a big way over the last two games, going 5-for-6 with a walk, three RBIs and two runs scored. It’s a deep and balanced offensive crew with no real holes.
Devils Lake is now hitting .292 as a team with a .411 on-base percentage. And that’s including the slow start. The Storm are walking 12.6% of the time and striking out just 9.2%. The team is playing its best baseball right now and has all the momentum in the world heading into another South Dakota tournament this weekend.
Devils Lake Storm B
Despite losing some of its better players to the A team, the B team has still been playing well. Devils Lake split a doubleheader with Rugby on Tuesday before sweeping two games over Velva on Wednesday. The Storm are a shiny 19-5 on the summer.
Cayden McCarthy pitched a gem for the B squad in Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Rugby. He allowed just one run over seven innings, with six strikeouts. He walked five but only allowed three hits. He threw 118 pitches.
McCarthy also had a game-tying sacrifice fly after Rugby took an early 1-0 lead. Lakin Ronningen put the Storm in front with an RBI sacrifice bunt, while Finley Wirth added an RBI triple and Henley Driessen added an RBI double.
The Storm lost 13-2 in the non-conference game that followed. The game only went three innings.
On Wednesday, Devils Lake won a tight 4-3 ballgame in seven innings over Velva. Each team scored three in the first, and the only other run came on a Velva wild pitch in the third inning. Tayven Wiberg settled in after the first inning to throw a complete game, striking out seven and walking four while navigating six hits. He threw 120 pitches.
In the nightcap, another seven-inning game, the Storm took care of business with a 7-2 win. Talan Gregory pitched a complete game this time, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits. He struck out three and walked two. He got it done in 99 pitches. Gregory also reached base three times in the game and had two RBIs.
The Storm travel to New Rockford on Monday and Cando on Tuesday.
Cando Post 79
The Bearcats had hit a slight skid, losing three in a row. But after a 7-6 loss to Velva on Tuesday, they won the nightcap 3-1 and then beat Rolla 12-3 on Wednesday. They’re 9-7 in official games this summer.
Cando let a 5-0 lead slip away in the loss to Velva. Hunter Hagler pitched six solid innings, with only one earned run allowed, though he had three unearned runs on his line. He struck out five and didn’t issue any walks. The Bearcats led 6-4 going to the bottom of the seventh, but the 39ers got to Parker Simon for three runs (two earned) over a third of an inning.
Karsen Simon, though, finished the night on a positive note with a complete-game shutout in the 3-1 win. He struck out 13 and didn’t walk anybody over seven innings. He worked around six hits, with his only run allowed in the sixth inning.
The Cando offense totaled 11 hits and six walks in the 12-3 victory over Rolla on Wednesday. K. Simon went 3-for-4 with a triple, a double and four RBIs. He improved his summer average to .302 and OPS to .863. P. Simon, who’s hit two home runs this summer, leads the team with a monstrous .475/.585/.825 line.
Gauge Driessen reached base four times, with two hits and two walks. He’s only hitting .200, but he has a blistering .455 OBP, fueled by 12 total walks.
The Bearcats are getting going again after a brief stall in the Diamond Days Tournament the previous week, where they lost the last three games to finish 2-3 in the tournament. Before the three losses, though, they’d won four in a row. And that was following a three-game losing streak.
It’s been a season of streaks for Cando, which looks to make it three in a row against Rugby at 5 p.m. in Cando this Monday.
New Rockford Post 30 Black Sox
The Black Sox are 4-9 this summer. They won three in a row over the weekend of June 28, but have since dropped their last two.
In their last game, a 4-1 loss to the West Fargo Rattlers, Skye Kramlich gave a solid outing with four runs (three earned) allowed over six innings. He struck out seven and walked three. Kramlich and Alex Weisenburger have both been reliable forces on the mound this summer.
New Rockford has still taken three of its last five games. The team played five games over three days before last week and went 3-2.
