Staff photo / Brian Yauger Western Reserve’s Hannah Heath throws a pitch toward home plate during the Blue Devils’ district title matchup against Chalker on Wednesday.

VERNON — For the first time since 2001, the Chalker Wildcats are district champions.

The Wildcats rode a hot start to a 5-4 victory over Western Reserve in the Division IV, Badger District Finals.

“It’s huge for our team, for our town, for our community, just everyone, it’s awesome,” Chalker coach Rich Hudak said. “It’s been a long time coming. They’ve worked their butts off, and we’re just truly happy.”

Chalker couldn’t have scripted a better start to the game. The Wildcats opened with a 3-run first inning, quickly set down Western Reserve, then came back around and added another run with junior Gabby Nieves air-mailing a pitch to deep center.

The Wildcats knew coming in how important a strong start was and made the most of the opportunity.

“It was very important for us because we aren’t really used to batting first. We were really excited, but we were really nervous,” Nieves said. “We knew we had to come out here and put down what we needed to do. We talked a lot and we came out and were ready to play.”

The Blue Devils didn’t go down easy however. Facing a 5-2 deficit and the end of their season on the line, Western Reserve sparked one last rally. The Blue Devils worked quickly to get on base and in scoring position.

Aubrey Kutsko started the rally, scoring first to cut the lead, and Allison Jones brought the deficit to 5-4, scoring on a sacrifice fly.

With two outs on the board, Western Reserve had one last shot.

There was a runner in scoring position and the winning run was at the plate, but a line drive to sophomore Kelsey Kren iced things in favor of Chalker.

Despite the pressure mounting, the Wildcats didn’t flinch.

“They have, through the years, been able to do this,” coach Hudak said. “Working up through, they’ve been able to get these games. We worked hard all summer, so when we get into a situation, it’s not like, ‘Oh no, what do I do?’ It’s ‘Okay, we’re going to bear down, we’ve got to do it.’ Some of these plays, that last play, Kelsey Kren has an awesome play right and almost runs that (other) one down. It’s just grit and a ‘want to.'”

Freshman ace Tatum Hudak, who tallied 11 strikeouts on Wednesday, punched out her 100th of the season in the bottom of the second. Battling sickness as well as a tough Western Reserve team, Hudak made a statement.

To her coach, and father, this is just years of unseen work finally paying off.

“She puts a lot of work in when no one’s looking,” he said. “She does her homework and just comes out here and does her thing. She was under the weather today had a really bad cold. I wasn’t sure if she was going to go today. She woke up yesterday morning pretty rough, this morning, pretty rough, she came home from school. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but that’s just how much they wanted this.”

The Wildcats have made it a point this season to punch above their weight class

They’ve seen a pair of Division III district finalists in Poland and Lakeview, the latter twice, as well as district semifinalist Brookfield.

Games like these, high stakes and against tough teams, are exactly why they schedule the teams they do.

“That’s exactly why we go out and get those top-level teams to play so we can prepare ourselves,” coach Hudak said. “Like I told them before we started the season, ‘We’re going to get some good teams. Whatever the outcome is, we’re learning either way, and this is going to help you more than you might think, at the time.’ And that definitely helped us in this situation for sure.”

Western Reserve’s season ends at 17-3. Despite the adversity, the Blue Devils’ final effort was a strong one.

“They just never gave up,” Reserve coach Katie Serensky said. “They’ve always battled back, they always have that fight in them. They knew from the get go that this was going to be a game where they hit the ball and they score runs, and we do the same. I think they came in ready and prepared knowing that’s what was going to happen. They put their heads down and they fought back.”

Chalker advances to the regional semifinals where they’ll face off against the winner of Gibsonburg and Lakeside Danbury in the Northwest 5 District. That contest will be held on Friday.

The Wildcats and the Northwest 5 winner will square off on Wednesday at the Roehm Athletic Complex in Berea. Start time is set for 5 p.m.

“One of our goals in the beginning of the year was to see how long into the school year we can play,” coach Hudak said. “Can we play to Memorial Day? Can we get to that week? What are we going to have to do to get there? We’ve made it to that week and we’re still in, so we’ll see what we can do. We’ll see if we can get some games, see if we can get someone, it’s dwindling down now, but we’re going to do what we’ve got to do to get ready for next week.”