Photo by Noah Clooten
CASSELTON — Devils Lake entered the final day of the Legion baseball state tournament needing to win twice to hoist the trophy.
Instead, the Storm (30-11) dropped a 9-7 slugfest to Fargo Post 2 at Valley Process Technologies Field. The loss brought an end to their season.
“I know there’s some kids over there that definitely, their goal was to raise the plaque at the end of the year,” Devils Lake coach Brent Luehring said. “And we just fell two games short.”
The Jets (33-9) advanced to Monday’s championship game against Casselton Post 15. They outhit Devils Lake 12-10 and benefitted from some fortunate bounces and ball placement.
After all, baseball is a game of inches.
“They caught their breaks,” Luehring said. “We didn’t catch the breaks until the end, and we just ran out of time. I liked the way we hit the ball all game. We had a good approach, and they just hit the ball a little better than us.”
Pregame setup
Fargo had to finish a suspended game at 10:30 Monday morning. The Jets held on to beat Casselton 5-3, setting up a rematch with Devils Lake at noon.
On the mound, Devils Lake opted to go with Brody Rainsberry while saving Hunter Remmick for the potential championship game. Rainsberry’s ERA in the regular season was 3.71, while Remmick’s was 2.19. Remmick faced this Fargo team back in June, when he threw five scoreless innings.
“Just trying to show somebody else that they hadn’t seen,” Luehring said.
Erasing another early deficit
The Jets struck in the opening frame after a one-out double by Colby Ebeling and a two-out single by Tate Barnacle. Rainsberry got a called strike three to strand two runners, as he dotted the outside corner.
But, like on Sunday, the Storm faced an immediate deficit.
Pitching for Fargo was Jack Joyce. He’d faced Devils Lake in a relief outing on Friday, when he walked three batters and only got two outs.
Joyce’s control issues trickled into Monday. After issuing a leadoff walk to Max Palmer, he hit Trason Beck with one out to load the bases.
Rainsberry got to avenge the run he gave up. He sliced one to the right-center gap — not a dissimilar spot from where he’d surrendered the run-scoring hit. Rainsberry’s single scored two runners, jolting Devils Lake into the lead.
The Storm grabbed another run on a balk. They led 3-1 after an inning, responding to the early deficit just like they did on Sunday.
But the Jets kept working that right-center gap. The seven-hitter, Harper Schulz, swatted one all the way over the wall for a leadoff homer in the second inning. It was Schulz’s second bomb of the tournament.
After a mound visit, Rainsberry stranded the potential tying run on third.
Devils Lake added a run in the bottom of the second, stemming from a leadoff double by Easton Kraft. The Storm pulled off three infield hits in a row, including two of the bunt variety.
Baserunning mistakes kept it from being a bigger rally. Taydon Triepke was caught stealing second, and Max Palmer was picked off third. But it was Palmer’s bunt hit that made it 4-2 Storm.
Fargo comes back to tie it
Rainsberry still couldn’t find a groove as the first two Jets reached in the third inning. From there, Fargo tied the game on a string of bad luck.
With runners on the corners, shortstop Mason Palmer made a fielding error that was really more of a mental error. He initially motioned like he was going to throw it second. He changed his mind and made a strong throw to first, but it was a hair late as a run came home.
Then Jeremiah Bekkum lined one off of Rainsberry. The infield single knotted it up at 4-4.
“This time of year, you’ve gotta play perfect to win,” Luehring said. “Or catch a break. And the break went their way instead of ours… If you can’t do things right, the other team’s gonna capitalize.”
That brought an end to Rainsberry’s afternoon on the mound. Although the final series of events wasn’t his fault, he had to grind through three innings on 66 pitches. He allowed four runs (two earned).
Game gets away from the Storm
Kraft’s second double of the game put Devils Lake back ahead. But the Jets rallied against Triepke in the fourth to not only take the lead but go up by a sizable gap.
They loaded the bases on a double and a pair of walks. With two outs, a potential inning-ending groundout bounced off the second-base bag. Fargo jumped in front, and it turned into four straight hits to bury Devils Lake in a 9-5 hole. Schulz smashed a two-run double amidst the rally.
“Thought if we could get Brody through four, we’d have a good chance,” Luehring said. “And he got us through three, and we pulled him out. And then things kind of snowballed.”
One unlucky bounce turned into a nightmare outing for Triepke. He faced nine hitters and only got two outs.
“They just hit every piece of grass we weren’t,” Luehring said, “with maybe not the best swing, but a good, defensive, two-strike swing. It did the job, and that’s baseball.”
Max Palmer took over and snared a comebacker, but not before the Jets put up five runs on five hits.
With the Jets now leading by four, Joyce recorded the game’s first scoreless half-inning. He set the Storm’s top three hitters down in order in the bottom of the fourth.
Joyce’s day on the mound came to an end after 4 1/3 innings. He left after Devils Lake put two on in the bottom of the fifth. Joyce threw 78 pitches, surrendering eight hits and three walks.
Bekkum took over and retired Will Heilman and Kraft to strand both runners.
Devils Lake makes it interesting late
Max Palmer settled in to throw a scoreless fifth, sixth and seventh. He walked two in the fifth, but second baseman Ben Larson turned a slick 4-6-3 double play.
The Storm rallied against Bekkum to trim the gap in the bottom of the sixth. Fargo’s right fielder dropped a fly ball for a two-base error. After an RBI groundout from Fausten Olson, Mason Palmer hit a well-struck double to deep right field.
It was 9-7. With runners on the corners, Remmick worked a 3-1 count but struck out looking.
Heilman led off the bottom of the seventh with a bloop hit. Kraft, swinging a hot bat, lined one right to the second baseman, who doubled Heilman off first base.
Any Storm momentum was gone. The ending continued the game-long theme of bad breaks.
Final reflections
Devils Lake had to settle for being one of the last three teams remaining in Class A. The Storm were both the regular-season and tournament champions of the East. They finished as essentially the third-place team from Class A.
“We had our opportunities all tournament long,” Luehring said. “I thought we could have gone 6-0 in this tournament, but it just didn’t go our way. Two tight games we lost when the ball didn’t bounce our way, but that’s baseball. Sometimes the best team doesn’t always win, and whoever does the most things right is what decides the game. And today, we didn’t do enough things right.”
Devils Lake will return at least some of its seniors next summer. The only player it’s losing for sure is Beck. Olson is still undecided, while Rainsberry, Landon Sundeen and Lakin Ronningen’s return will depend on whether Nelson County has a Legion team.
