Ben Larson (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The Storm entered Tuesday with a 2.55 ERA as a team.
That number only went down as Ben Larson and Mason Palmer each turned in a dominant outing. Devils Lake (20-7, 12-2) swept a doubleheader over Wahpeton Post 20 (9-11, 1-9) at DLYA Field, extending its conference win streak to 12.
Larson and Palmer each allowed just one hit in a complete-game effort. Those two, along with Hunter Remmick, have formed a three-headed monster on the mound this summer, each with ERAs of 2.00 or lower. Devils Lake’s team ERA is now a sparkling 2.40, leading the team to 20 wins in its last 23 games.
“We always have little comments about our ERA, and strikeouts, and who’s gonna throw the next shutout, or stuff like that,” Larson said. “It’s always good to have a little competition with your teammates out there.”
With Tuesday’s victories, the Storm clinched the No. 1 seed in the Class A East ahead of the region tournament in a couple weeks — which they’ll be hosting this year.
“It’s a goal of ours to win the conference in the regular season,” said Storm coach Brent Luehring, whose team took the top seed last summer as well. “We knew we could line up Ben and Mason, and probably give ourselves a chance to win both. And they both threw really well.”
Game 1: Devils Lake 2, Wahpeton 0
Larson has had an outstanding summer on the mound, and Tuesday’s outing was just another slot in that success.
The recently-graduated right-hander threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout on 87 pitches. He struck out seven and walked two. The performance lowered his ERA to 1.60 in a team-high 39 2/3 innings.
“My tempo, really,” Larson said of what’s fueled his success. “I’ve just been going and going, and just getting up on the mound and pumping strikes and making them roll over, pop up — trusting my fielders and all that. It makes me confident on the mound.”
The Devils Lake offense came into the game having scored 10 runs in each of its last three games. It came out hot again, but slowed down as the game went on — but it didn’t matter as Larson continued to go out there, inning after inning, and do his thing.
Larson arguably didn’t even have his A-plus command. He struck out three in the opening frame, but also issued a two-out walk and went full on one of the punchouts. In the second inning, he worked around a one-out single. He got three quick pieces of soft contact in the third, but issued his second walk of the game with one out in the fourth.
He went back to attacking hitters, getting a pair of swinging strikeouts to strand a runner in scoring position. He had five strikeouts through the first four innings.
“They kind of crowded the plate a lot, so it made it hard to adjust my pitches where I wanted them,” Larson said. “But they were just hitting my pitches, and grounding out, and that’s all I could ask for.”
The Devils Lake offense, meanwhile, got both of its runs in the first two innings, with a leadoff hit by pitch in each frame.
In the first, leadoff hitter Max Palmer reached, then scored on a slap single to right field from his twin brother Mason. Brody Rainsberry also wore one to lead off the second inning. He stole second base, then advanced to third on an errant throw and scored on an RBI groundout by Will Heilman.
Devils Lake grabbed a 2-0 lead after two innings — the score that would eventually hold.
In the third inning, the hit by pitch didn’t come until there was already one out. Fausten Olson reached and stole second, but Mason Palmer got robbed of a hit on a hard liner to the shortstop this time around.
The Devils Lake bats, which had been so hot lately, finally cooled down as the game wore on. The Storm went down 1-2-3 in the fourth and stranded a baserunner in each of the third and fifth innings. Wahpeton starter Carter Hockert allowed just two runs (one earned) on six strikeouts, zero walks and three hits in six innings.
Larson survived a one-out hit by pitch in the fifth. The runner got all the way to third, but Larson got Hockert to fly out to left to end the inning. He settled in to get three ground balls on just five pitches in the sixth. It kept his pitch count at an efficient 69 through six innings.
Larson had some of his best command towards the end of the contest. He recorded two strikeouts to start the seventh, then ended the game with a routine flyout to center.
It was business as usual for Devils Lake’s ace.
“I actually think he’s got better stuff in him,” Luehring said. “I haven’t thought he’s been as sharp as he has been with his breaking stuff. His fastball’s been good in the zone, and been attacking hitters with that, but if we can get that offspeed going — Yeah, he’s on a good run right now. Hopefully he can keep it up.”
Game 2: Devils Lake 3, Wahpeton 1
Mason Palmer struck out nine in seven innings of one-run ball to lead another pitching-fueled victory. He entered with a 0.00 ERA, which rose to 0.38 after Tuesday’s outing.
Devils Lake struck first in the second inning. Trason Beck led off with a double, and Remmick drove him in with a seeing-eye single through the left side.
Palmer, like Larson before him, was slightly more around the strike zone than he likely would have preferred. He hit two batters in the opening inning. But he struck out six of the next seven, with the only other one reaching on an error.
Palmer had five consecutive strikeouts at one point. After getting the last one on a 3-2 count, he worked another 3-2 count on the next batter and walked him. Palmer then retired the next seven batters, collecting eight strikeouts through five no-hit innings.
“I think sometimes he’s gotta learn that he doesn’t have to just throw it by everybody,” Luehring said. “He needs to be a pitcher, too. And he can pitch to some contact and trust his guys behind him.”
Max Palmer and Olson led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles. Palmer scored on a resulting error by the center fielder. Mason Palmer added a sacrifice fly to help his own effort, extending the Devils Lake lead to 3-0.
Palmer fell into another 3-2 count leading off the sixth, and ended up issuing his second walk and fourth free pass. After a brief mound visit, he surrendered a little blooper into right-center for Wahpeton’s first hit — and just its second base knock of the evening.
The Storm fell into their first real jam of the night. They had a miscommunication on a potential double play ball, and Rainsberry dropped a throw for an error to load the bases. Wahpeton scored on an odd fielder’s choice from shallow center.
“That can’t happen,” Luehring said. “Two guys thought they had the bag. And Mason did his job turning through to it, and they just didn’t communicate earlier.”
Palmer, though, limited the damage to one run as he collected his ninth strikeout. It was the first run he’s allowed all summer, after 24 consecutive scoreless innings.
A ball got by third baseman Max Palmer in the seventh for an error. But Mason Palmer retired the next three to complete the one-hitter.
“I think he’d tell you today, he wasn’t on his A game,” Luehring said. “Actually, his last couple starts, he’s been just good enough. I’m not gonna complain; he’s throwing a one-hitter, and he shut out Casselton last week. Sometimes, just throw the ball over the plate and good things happen. That’s kind of just been our mindset.”
Devils Lake now heads to a tournament in Clark, South Dakota, from Thursday through Saturday. Their next game after that is in Grand Forks against the Grand Forks Royals at 5 p.m. on July 16. The region tournament in Devils Lake is set for July 24-26.
The Storm will be the host and No. 1 seed in that tournament.
“It’s nice that we have our league play behind us. Now we can go to work and try some different things on some non-conference stuff this weekend and next week, and hopefully build our way into the tournament,” Luehring said. “And we feel good about where we’re at. We feel good about the group we have, and the number of guys that can play. It’s just, hopefully we can push the right buttons at the right time and get these guys going 100 miles an hour when it’s tournament time.”
