Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Western Reserve’s Landan Gerchak delivers a pitch during Friday’s Division VII sectional final against Waterloo in Berlin Center.

BERLIN CENTER — With how unpredictable the weather conditions have been this spring, the Western Reserve baseball team has played in everything from snowflakes and subfreezing temperatures to sunshine and warmth.

That experience dealing with the elements came in handy on Friday, as the Blue Devils weathered wind and steady rainfall to shut out Waterloo 5-0 in a Division VII, Northeast 1, sectional final in Berlin Center.

“With this spring, the way it was, we’ve played in this a ton, so I don’t think it bothered us one bit,” Western Reserve coach Rob Armeni said. “We made a few adjustments at the plate, also in the field with things that we did. … Common sense things like that is what keeps you in the game, not making extra mistakes.”

The Blue Devils set the tone early in the dreary conditions, putting up three runs in the bottom of the first inning to pounce on the Vikings.

Peyton Hartzell reached on an error to lead things off. Then after a Vito Armeni was walked, Hunter Stacy blasted a triple that scored both his teammates. In the next at-bat, Cole Dotson grounded out, but Stacy scored from third for the RBI.

“It was huge for us,” Rob Armeni said of the hot start. “That’s been a little bit of a downfall for us, not getting started early, getting some runs and in this case, putting some crooked numbers up on the boards. We’ve been the team that’s scored in bunches here and there. Their second pitcher gave us a problem with a lot of good spin, but we were really just weathering the storm out there.”

Western Reserve only finished with three hits — a triple and double from Stacy, along with a double from Vito Armeni in the third inning — but the Blue Devils still capitalized on opportunities when they had them.

Hartzell reached base on Waterloo fielding errors in the infield three times, while Reserve got on base 10 times on walks. Those extra players on base allowed the Blue Devils to score twice on wild pitches — once in the third inning and again in the fourth.

On the mound, Landan Gerchak put together a memorable outing, pitching a complete-game one-hitter with 11 strikeouts and five walks. The lone blemish came in the top of the fifth inning on an infield single by Waterloo’s Mason Biltz.

“He’s a great player. The future is so bright for him,” Rob Armeni said of Gerchak. “It’s the second year in a row that he hasn’t been able to start the season until late. Last year, he had an injury. But can’t wait to get a full year out of him. He’s 100% now, as you can see.”

Reserve’s win is its third over the Vikings this season, after the Blue Devils swept a pair of games against them to start the season back in March.

Twentieth-seeded Waterloo ends its season at 5-17, while No. 2 seed Western Reserve improves to 13-8. The Blue Devils now get No. 4 seed Maplewood on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the district semifinals. The Rockets defeated Cardinal 11-1 on Friday to advance.

“We talk about program building, and I think in my first year we had two road games, last year two home games and this year the same deal,” Rob Armeni said. “So we’re just trying step-by-step to get to the next round.”