Staff photo / Neel Madhavan McDonald ace Aubrey Evans delivers a pitch during the Blue Devils’ district semifinal victory over East’s Palestine on Monday at McDonald.

MCDONALD — Monday’s Division VI, Northeast 4 district semifinal got off to a bit of a rocky start, but Aubrey Evans and the rest of the McDonald softball team didn’t let that faze them.

East Palestine arrived late to the Blue Devils’ softball field, which resulted in the contest starting about 50 minutes later than scheduled.

However, McDonald shook off the late start and blitzed the Bulldogs right from the opening pitch. Evans struck out the side to start things off and the Blue Devils scored all of their runs in the bottom of the first inning, as they coasted to a 7-0 victory over East Palestine to advance back to the district final for the second straight season.

“District final is a big deal for us,” McDonald coach Michelle Titus said. “We did go last year. We went all the way to regionals, so that was a big goal for us that we achieved again.”

After being named the MVAC Scarlet Tier’s Player of the Year, Evans again added to her long list of accomplishments in the circle this season.

She pitched a complete-game no-hitter — her sixth of the spring — and finished with 19 strikeouts to push her season total over 260 for her junior campaign.

“I think a lot of my movement pitches were working,” Evans said. “I didn’t need to use a change-up too much, so looking to incorporate that next game. But I was just trying to pound the strike zone to be able to compete in our next game in the district final.”

In her 17 appearances this year, Evans has compiled a 13-3 record with a 0.46 ERA, as she’s helped lead the Blue Devils to the outright MVAC Scarlet Tier championship.

“It’s pretty crazy. I wanted to improve from last season, obviously,” Evans said of her numbers. “We had a pretty good year, winning the district final for the second time in school history last year. So we’re just looking to do it again this year.”

East Palestine had no answer for Evans and struggled just to get the bat on the ball. The Bulldogs didn’t put a ball in play until the top of the sixth inning and only got on base four times on Evans’ three walks and one hit-by-pitch.

“She’s a leader on the team,” Titus said of Evans. “Everyone’s important, and Aubrey’s been a leader on the mound. She’s got a lot of strikeouts, and she’s been a great player for us.”

In that first inning, the Blue Devils batted around the order, putting up all seven of their runs off eight total hits.

Senior Miley Titus, who played her final home game on McDonald’s home field on Monday, had both of her hits in that opening frame.

“It means a lot to Miley,” Michelle Titus said. “She loves this team, and she loves softball. To get a win on her last time on her home field, she’s very excited.”

Elise Evans and Sophia Pecchia both had hits that resulted in two RBIs for the Blue Devils, while Aubrey Evans and Gabbie DiRubba also each contributed an RBI.

McDonald just had one more hit the rest of the game off Bulldogs pitcher Kennedy Andre, as East Palestine tightened things up defensively.

“I think our girls were still hitting the ball. They were nice hard hits,” Michelle Titus said. “They were just hitting it right to them, and the other team was playing good defense.”

The Bulldogs finish their season at 9-9 after capturing a sectional title with their win over Kirtland last week. Monday’s loss was also the final career game for East Palestine seniors Cami Kridler and Lilly Ratner.

“I just told them, especially my two seniors, we haven’t had a sectional championship in like 10 years, so to play in a district semifinal, I’m so proud of them,” Bulldogs coach Clarence Andre said. “We competed — gave up seven runs in the first inning, then to hold them scoreless the rest of the game shows that we were able to compete a little bit.

“Just proud of the girls because they battled and faced a lot of adversity with weather and had a few injuries, so we missed a couple games because we didn’t have enough girls. My two seniors, they kept their heads up the whole time. Finishing .500 for us, that’s a really good season.”

Top-seeded McDonald will get a familiar foe in Wednesday’s district championship at Jackson-Milton. The Blue Devils will face No. 8 seed Columbia Station Columbia, which beat McDonald in the regional semis last year. Columbia beat No. 14 seed Springfield 5-4 on Monday to advance.

“I think I heard earlier that we play the same team we lost to last year in regionals,” Aubrey Evans said. “So we’ll try and come back from that loss and make it to regionals.”