Staff photo / Brian Yauger Western Reserve pitcher Hannah Heath sends a pitch toward the plate Monday night against Mineral Ridge.

VERNON — If there’s one thing Western Reserve has excelled at this season, it’s scoring runs.

Monday’s Division IV, Badger District semifinal contest was no different as the Blue Devils piled on 18 runs to beat Mineral Ridge 17-7.

Despite what the score may say, it wasn’t an easy win for Western Reserve. The Rams seemed to have an answer for everything Reserve did, and each time it appeared the Blue Devils were taking over, Mineral Ridge delivered a punch back to stay around.

“They put the ball in play,” Blue Devils coach Katie Serensky said. “We started off a little shaky there. We weren’t able to get our ball game as clean as we would like it to be, but we kept battling. (Mineral Ridge) never wanted to go away, that’s for sure, but our bats kept us going.”

In a season full of ups for Western Reserve (17-2), they’ve had their share of things to come back from. The Blue Devils suffered both of their losses to McDonald, and each time they responded.

Every challenge, like the weather, or a feisty team that keeps them on their toes, Reserve has handled it well.

“They’ve battled back. We had a tough loss last week (to McDonald) and they came back and the next day, we went back out there and kept playing our game,” Serensky said. “I think these girls just don’t give up.

“They never have from day one, every single time we’ve come across that adversity like with the weather, obviously, we come to practice strong, and they just honestly just never give up. They are always ready to fight, no matter what’s brought their way.”

Mineral Ridge ends its season at 10-11.

With just one senior and five juniors on the roster this season, getting experience at the district level was very important. The Rams have a young team and expect to be back. Getting that taste now can only help them down the road.

“I think it’s important to taste that loss, because now they know,” Rams co-head coach Joe Merolillo said. “I think that fight will be a little bit more next year, and it’s going to keep growing.

“We wanted to get this one for Maddy (Ylonen). We all did, coaches and the younger girls, Maddy is our senior and we wanted it for her. It didn’t turn our way, but they fought hard for her.”

The Blue Devils will face Chalker on Wednesday in the district title game. Going into that game, Western Reserve wants to tighten up its defensive performance first and foremost.

“We’ve got to clean up our defense number one,” Serensky said. “If we play like we did defensively today, we’re going to struggle with that for sure. We’ve just got to clean up our defense. We will work a lot on that tomorrow. Our bats are always there, I don’t have to worry about that, but we just have to clean up defensively.”

First pitch is set for 5 p.m. at Badger High School.