Staff photo / Preston Byers McDonald’s Aubrey Evans delivers during Monday’s no-hitter vs. Jackson-Milton at Woodland Park.

MCDONALD — McDonald star pitcher Aubrey Evans turned in a no-hitter against Jackson-Milton on Monday to give her Blue Devils the top spot in the Mahoning Valley Athletic (MVAC) Scarlet Tier.

After three scoreless innings to start the game, the Devils jumped ahead 4-0 in the fourth and added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth en route to a 6-0 league win at Woodland Park.

“I think that our girls played really well,” McDonald head coach Michelle Titus said. “They hit the ball. Aubrey did a fabulous job on the mound. … They all just came together and did a good job tonight.”

Evans struck out the side in the first to start the game and had three strikeouts in each of the second and third innings, two more Ks in the fourth, and earned a trio of strikeouts in each inning afterward to reach the 20 mark.

“She did a very good job controlling the ball. She threw a lot of strikes,” Titus said. “They were very disciplined batters. They didn’t give her much. I don’t even know how many times they swung the bat, but it wasn’t very often. She had a lot of strikeouts with no swing.”

McDonald had a similarly tough time getting going against Blue Jays starter Katie Byers, who had four strikeouts and two baserunners through the first three innings.

However, things decidedly shifted in the Blue Devils’ favor in the bottom of the fourth, when Byers began the half-inning by hitting leadoff batter Kylee Gheraldi with a pitch. Then, a defensive error allowed a pop fly to result in both runners safe before Marissa Colarich singled softly through the right side of the infield to drive in Gheraldi.

McDonald quickly added to its lead with an Elise Evans double that slipped under the shortstop’s glove; both Colarich and Aubrey Evans scored as a result, giving the Devils a 3-0 lead. Later in the half-inning, a Sophia Pecchia bloop single dropped in center field, and Elise Evans scored to go up 4-0.

“It was just timing,” Jackson-Milton head coach Tyler Halavick said of the fourth. “I don’t think it was a momentum switch. It was just how long can we stay loose and clean. And we got to hit the ball, too. We got to take that momentum. It could go either way at that point. It could have been ours. I think it was just a matter of time for either one of those teams.”

After leaving a pair of runners stranded in the fifth, McDonald successfully added to its advantage in the sixth, when Samara Fabian scored on a passed ball. Pecchia subsequently scored on a groundout to increased the lead to 6-0.

Aubrey Evans, who had not allowed a runner on base since the second inning, walked Tiffany Tingler to lead off the seventh before recovering with three straight strikeouts to end the game. On the day, she struck out all but three batters she faced. Only one managed to make fair contact.

“I try to work the count as much as I can,” Aubrey Evans said. “It can be a struggle sometimes because I throw a lot of movement pitches, so it’s either it’s going to be high and they’re going to swing or it’s going to be a ball. They just have to be either swinging or just have it in the strike zone. I did a good job with that tonight.”

Byers finished Monday’s outing with eight strikeouts, while allowing seven hits, four earned runs and two walks. Halavick said that he thought it was Byers’ best performance of the season.

With the loss, Jackson-Milton (11-3, 9-2 MVAC Scarlet), which had been half of a game ahead of McDonald (13-2, 9-1 MVAC Scarlet) entering Monday, is now tied with Mineral Ridge for second place, half of a game behind the Blue Devils.

McDonald, which extended its win streak to 11 with the victory, will travel to North Jackson to play the Blue Jays in a rematch today.