Fausten Olson (Photo by Noah Clooten)
MINOT — An explosive effort in Sunday’s non-conference action at Jack Hoeven Park capped a successful regular season for Devils Lake.
The Storm will be the host of this year’s Class A East tournament at DLYA Field, which begins Thursday. They dismantled the cross-state Minot Metros (24-16) by a score of 17-0 on Sunday, taking a 24-9 overall record into the postseason.
The coaches wanted to get this game in so they didn’t have a long layoff before the region tournament.
“Jeff and Skip and I just decided we’ve gotta find a game and it didn’t matter when,” coach Brent Luehring said. “Everything worked out pretty well today.”
Devils Lake is looking to defend its state tournament appearance from last summer.
“I think we’ll do good,” Storm center fielder Fausten Olson said. “I trust in our process and what the coaches have been preaching to us.”
The Storm started this season 0-4. But through an offensive resurgence in Sioux Falls, they’ve since ridden to a nearly spotless campaign.
“I thought it was kind of a work in progress for us to find the right roster to be able to go compete with,” Luehring said. “Going down to South Dakota and learning that we can play with some of the good teams, I think it kind of sparked us. And we just got on a roll.”
They totaled 15 hits, nine walks and two hit-by-pitches in Sunday’s onslaught, which included six runs in each of the third and fourth innings. Devils Lake has gotten on base at well over a 40% clip this summer, with more walks than strikeouts as a group.
“Ever since Sioux Falls, I feel like we really started to see the ball good,” Olson said. “And the team started playing a lot more together and not selfish.”
The Devils Lake offense was robust with baserunners early and often on Sunday.
Max Palmer and Olson set the tone with back-to-back walks to lead off the game. Trason Beck got the Storm on the board with an RBI single. They left the bases loaded in the opening frame, but added two runs in the second and six in the third to blow it open.
After a couple of bloops put two on in the second inning, Olson smacked an RBI double and Brody Rainsberry tacked on a sacrifice fly. It was 3-0 at the time.
“Just staying back, like coach [Eric] Nygaard’s taught us,” Olson said of what’s working at the plate. “And letting the ball travel. Driving it to the right side of the field really helped me.”
Olson’s knock was his team-leading 40th hit. He also drew two walks, reached on two fielder’s choices and scored four runs on Sunday.
“He’s a leader in our dugout,” Luehring said. “He’s steady, shows up every day. With Max [Palmer] and him at the top of our lineup, if one of them don’t get on, usually the other one does… It’s just bringing that steady leadership. And he’s had a lot of experience at the top of our lineup over the last two, three years… He holds our other guys accountable.”
The third inning was a parade of free passes, fueled by a Taydon Triepke two-run double in the middle. An RBI walk by Hunter Remmick — the eighth free pass (seventh walk) of the inning — helped balloon the score to 9-0. Devils Lake scored six runs on just one hit in the frame.
Will Heilman handled business on the mound, throwing seven scoreless innings. He allowed just three hits and two walks.
He struck out 10, including three in the fourth inning to work around a pair of baserunners. He struck out the side in both the fourth and fifth innings. At one point, he struck out six in a row.
Not a bad outing for the team’s No. 5 starter.
“Will came out here and gave us seven strong innings,” Luehring said. “We feel pretty good about our rotation going into next week.”
Heilman faced the minimum in the first three innings, allowing just a single that was erased on a double play.
With the game already a rout, the Storm added another six-spot in the fourth. This time, they scratched together seven hits to get it done. Rainsberry had an RBI single amidst the rally, and Mason Palmer whacked a two-run double. Beck lined a single for two more runs.
Devils Lake batted around for the second straight inning, with 11 batters coming to the plate this time around. It was 15-0 in the middle of the fourth.
Beck added another blooper to score a pair in the fifth.
The Storm’s offense finally cooled down with just a two-out single in each the sixth and seventh. Heilman stayed out there and finished things out on the mound, ending the game with a strikeout after issuing a two-out walk. The contest was originally scheduled to be nine innings but ended in seven by run rule.
Devils Lake will be the No. 1 seed in the region tournament for the second straight summer — this time on its home turf.
“It’ll be good to be able to stay in our own beds, and come out to our own field and play,” Olson said. “It’s gonna be fun.”
Devils Lake faces No. 8 seed Wahpeton at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in the first round of the Class A East tournament at DLYA Field.
“It’s a new season next week,” Luehring said. “We’re excited to host it, and hopefully the boys can carry it over.”
