Staff photo / Preston Byers. Lowellville pitcher McKenna Lewis delivers a pitch during Wednesday’s Division VII, Northeast 3 district championship loss to Chalker in Alliance.

ALLIANCE — After an upset win over third-seeded Badger on Monday, Lowellville head coach Mike Alfano said his team was playing its best softball of the season. But on Wednesday, the 12th-seeded Rockets’ season came to a brutal halt.

Matched up against No. 6 Chalker, Lowellville fell behind early and could never catch up, as the Wildcats hit three home runs, including a grand slam, to pull away for a 16-2 win in five innings in the Division VII, Northeast 3 district championship game at Alliance High School.

“Boy, they hit. The team hits. They don’t really have a gap in their order anywhere,” Alfano said of Chalker. “We gave up a grand slam, two homers. Yeah, there was no safe space. That was it. They played well.”

Early on, it did not appear as if the Rockets were trending toward a blowout loss. Starting pitcher McKenna Lewis, who shut out the Braves two days earlier, picked up where she left off by retiring the side in order in the bottom of the first inning.

But in the second, the Wildcats gave a preview of what was to come.

Katelyn Cook led off the home half of the inning with a double to shallow left field, and Abby Grimm followed with an RBI single to score Cook and give Chalker a 1-0 lead. Tatum Hudak then hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Grimm.

After Hudak struck out the side in the top of the third, she became the catalyst for the Wildcats’ scoring outburst in the bottom of the inning.

Coming to the plate with the bases loaded following a Holly Roosa walk, Cook double and Grimm walk, Hudak perfectly timed a Lewis pitch and took it to center field for a game-changing grand slam.

“I knew I needed to get the team up. I knew I needed to do my part,” Tatum Hudak said.

The play, while invigorating for the Wildcats, proved demoralizing for Lowellville. Although the Rockets managed to score a pair of runs in the next inning, courtesy of a Giuliana Alfano double and a Lewis single, Mike Alfano said he did not think his team mentally recovered from Hudak’s grand slam.

“I think our girls were affected,” Mike Alfano said. “I think once that grand slam went, I could see the demeanor on their faces go. And then it kind of came off the rails there. … It was a big level of adversity for them to deal with.”

To make matters worse, Chalker was far from done scoring. In the bottom of the fourth, the Wildcats stretched their lead back out to five runs, then six and, eventually, to 14.

Throughout the inning, the Rockets struggled with passed balls and errors; Kylie Fussleman capitalized first on an error at third base before Bailey Ann Bussey scored on another infield miscue. Then, Riley Ashcraft hit a two-run home run to extend her team’s lead to 10-2.

Two batters later and still with no outs in the inning, Grimm crushed a ball into the trees over the left-field fence to bring her and Cook home and go ahead 12-2. Shortly thereafter, Julia Ross and Roosa hit RBI doubles, and Bussey capitalized on another passed ball to score Chalker’s 10th run of the inning and 16th of the game.

“It took us a little bit to get started, started a little slow. And then we found our groove. And we did what we needed to do,” Chalker head coach Rich Hudak said. “Just try to hit the ball hard somewhere. Just try to hit the ball. You never know with turf; it plays differently. So that was our game plan: just hit the ball and next batter up. Let’s not try to do too much, and just keep passing the bat.”

“We’re gonna take the ball, maybe opposite field if we need to,” he added. “Just take the pitch where the pitch is thrown to us, and that’s our mindset. And that was kind of the turning point. It was just one hit after another after another, and just keep trying to pile it on.”

Amid light rain, the Wildcats finished the five-inning game not long after, as Cook caught a line drive toward first base and calmly stepped on the bag next to her for a double play.

The win earned Chalker its second consecutive district title and third in the last four seasons. It is the first time in a quarter of a century that the Wildcats have repeated as district champions. They will play either No. 1 Newark Catholic or No. 2 Groveport Madison Christian in the regional semifinals on May 27 at Dalton.

“The further you go along, you’re gonna see great teams. So it’s important that we stay within ourselves,” Rich Hudak said. “I’m not gonna try to do too much. We’re gonna do what we continue to do: play good defense, great pitching and we’re gonna hit the ball and just take the game for what it is and not look past anyone.”

As for Lowellville (8-11), the loss concludes an up-and-down season, which included a four-game losing streak and an 18-0 loss to rival Springfield in the penultimate game of the regular season before two road playoff wins over higher-seeded opponents.

Mike Alfano admitted that not even he believed the Rockets would make it as far as they did.

“I’m pretty sure this is Lowellville’s first trip to a district championship,” Mike Alfano said. “If you would have asked me a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, the beginning of the season, if we had a shot at this, I would have said no. But they pulled it together at the end. And in the very end, our luck kind of ran out.”

“Still very proud of them,” he added. “Towards the end of the season, we started playing, even [against] the best teams we were playing, they played their best. … They surprised me. They did well. I mean, it’s a loss. We’ll wear the loss, but I’m still very proud of them for where we’re at and where we started, that’s for sure.”