NORTH JACKSON — “You just beat your rivals 10-0,” shouted Western Reserve coach Mike Cook to his team after they defeated host Jackson-Milton in a Division IV Sectional bracket final on Wednesday.

The Blue Devils (10-10) were sitting on the ground in a circle, celebrating the win, when Cook let his players know how he felt about their accomplishment.

“That’s two playoff wins. Maybe, we can get some more. Give yourselves a big hand,” he told them.

Western Reserve beat Maplewood, 15-4, on Tuesday to get to the sectional bracket final and now move on to the districts next Monday.

“We played Jackson-Milton earlier in the season,” Cook said. “We lost 10-7. We circled this date for a while. We wanted to play them again. We wanted to show our rivals that we were worthy of them. We hit the ball hard. We played great defense. As long as we keep winning, we keep going.”

The Blue Devils hit the ball early and often. Already leading 4-0 after three innings, freshman Lindsey Jones hit a one-out triple in the top of the fourth. Her twin sister, freshman Ally Jones, knocked her in with an infield single. The Devils added another run to take a 6-0 advantage.

After each team failed to score in the fifth, Western Reserve added four more runs in the top of the sixth to close it out. The Jones twins were at it again.

They both possess remarkable speed. Ally Jones tallied another infield single by beating out a close play at first base, knocking in her sister. Then, Ally scored on an unbelievable run-down between third base and home plate. She ran back-and-forth, forcing the Blue Jays to try to get her back to third, until she out-maneuvered the defense and crossed the plate.

“I was so excited about that one,” she said. ” I was about to run into the tag. Then, I thought about it. I was like no, I’m going to get into a run-down. I haven’t been to a lot of games because I also run track. I run the sprints. It’s been a lot of fun playing both sports.”

Jackson-Milton pitcher Riley Headley got a strikeout to end the inning. The Blue Jays (6-8, 5-3) tried to keep the game alive in the bottom of the sixth.

Emily Fultz got a solid base hit to the outfield, but freshman Ava Darney lined out to shortstop Caylee Selley. Western Reserve pitcher Joanie Dagnan got Blue Jay senior Jenna Jones out on a long fly ball to centerfield to end the game.

However, the loss doesn’t end Jackson-Milton’s season. They get another chance to play today against McDonald.

“The girls have played such a fantastic season,” Blue Jay coach Mariah Ciccolelli said. “We’re pretty young. Our seniors (Logan Grunder, Dana Saunders, Camryn Mitchell, Jenna Jones) really carried us through the season. They picked up our girls. Unfortunately, this wasn’t our game today. This was probably one of the worst games we played all year. It happened at the worst time. We know we are better than that.”

“We’re lucky enough that we have a makeup league game against McDonald on Thursday. I told the girls that a lot of teams are done right now, but we get to keep playing. It’s for fun right now.”