Ben Brodina (Photo by Noah Clooten)
CASSELTON — Through 18 innings in this tournament, Devils Lake had outscored opponents 21-0.
In the next two innings, the Storm finally got handed their first blow.
Casselton Post 15, the No. 4 seed from the East and host of the state tournament, scrapped together a three-run rally in the seventh to erase a 3-0 Devils Lake lead. The Haymakers (19-16) won in eight innings, 4-3, Saturday night at Valley Process Technology Field.
Devils Lake (29-10) was three outs away from being within two wins of a championship. Now it’ll have to fight to keep its season alive.
“I told them right there, ‘We’ve just gotta move on,’” Storm coach Brent Luehring said. “I mean, there’s no other thing. We don’t move on, we go home tomorrow.”
Ben Larson got the start, looking to bounce back from a similar type of outing in the region tournament — one where he mowed hitters down in the middle innings but blew a late lead.
In the top of the first, Casselton worked a pair of two-out baserunners against Larson after Carter Maasjo climbed out of an 0-2 hole to draw a walk. But Larson dropped the hammer, getting a called third strike to escape trouble.
Devils Lake, though still not swinging its best bats, did what it’s been doing all postseason: manufacturing runs. Fausten Olson beat out an infield hit and advanced to second on an errant throw. He moved to third on a wild pitch, and Mason Palmer brought him home with a bunt.
Armed with a 1-0 lead, Larson settled in through the majority of the game. He retired 11 batters in a row and consistently got the ball in the air. Casselton hit four flyouts in a row, seven in an eight-batter span and eight in a 10-batter span.
Larson threw a six-pitch third inning and a seven-pitch fourth. His streak ended with a walk in the fifth, but he induced a groundout to strand a runner on second.
The Storm got themselves a little extra cushion in the third inning. Olson doubled to deep right field for his second hit in as many at-bats. He made a baserunning mistake trying to advance on a ball to his right, but it hardly mattered.
A wild pitch set up an RBI chance for the clutch Trason Beck. The Lake Region State-bound catcher snuck a single up the middle, bringing home Mason Palmer. Brody Rainsberry added an RBI triple to the right-center gap to make it 3-0 Storm.
Devils Lake never scored again after the third inning.
The lineup featured Ben Brodina playing third base, rather than the usual Max Palmer or Easton Kraft. Brodina went 1-for-4 and made five putouts at third. Seven of the nine Storm starters had a hit. But they couldn’t put the game away like they had the previous two nights.
“We’re just trying to find some guys that’ll put the barrel on the bat,” Luehring said. “We know [Brodina]’s played infield; some spots earlier in the year. So we’re just trying to find an athlete there to make us some plays.”
The Storm loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but Casselton starter Keegan Peterson got Max Palmer to hit into an inning-ending forceout.
Still, Devils Lake went to the seventh inning looking to finish off its third shutout of the tournament. The top of the seventh started innocuously with a leadoff single by Peterson. But with one out, the Haymakers rattled off four straight singles. They were suddenly squaring up Larson.
“I think he just kind of got up in the zone,” Luehring said. “Didn’t have the run he was having earlier, and they adjusted.”
Larson finally got the second out, but it came on a fly ball to deep right field. It was a sacrifice fly by Logan Braaten to tie it up at 3-3.
After intentionally walking Maasjo, Larson induced a soft flyout to keep it tied.
Mason Palmer singled in the seventh, ending Peterson’s evening on the mound after 6 1/3 innings. The Storm manufactured Palmer to third base but left him stranded.
So free baseball came to Casselton. Larson went back out there with 88 pitches under his belt, but he still didn’t have it. The eighth inning started the same way the seventh did, with a single by Peterson.
Devils Lake pulled Larson after he issued a one-out walk. He threw 96 pitches over 7 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and four walks.
Max Palmer, who was effective in a small sample during the regular season, took over to try to mop up the mess. He hit a batter, then surrendered a go-ahead hit to center field by Jack Everson.
Palmer stranded the bases loaded to prevent further damage, but the Storm offense had no answer in the bottom of the eighth. Hunter Remmick and Will Heilman made outs on the first two pitches of the inning. Brodina grounded out to third base to end the game. Pitcher Rylen Boeder finished it for Casselton.
Devils Lake now plays an elimination game against Kindred Post 117 at 3 p.m. Sunday. The last time these teams met, the Storm won in walk-off fashion to win the region tournament.
“We’ve played some emotional baseball against them, and just emotional things over the last two years against them in basketball,” Luehring said. “They’re gonna want it out for us after how we ended it last week. And we’ve gotta rebound. We don’t have a choice.”
The Storm still have Remmick, Rainsberry and Heilman available to pitch. They need to win three straight games to win the tournament.
“We feel good about where we’re at arm-wise,” Luehring said. “I mean, that’s been the strength of this team all year long, is our depth. Hopefully we can come out and find some runs early, and get back in the win column and keep us in it.”
