Canfield thought Marlington blast was gone. It wasn't. Dukes miss softball final four.

MACEDONIA − Canfield's lead seemed going, going, gone when the ball exploded off Ashlyn Maurer's bat.

"I thought it was going over at first," Canfield left fielder Hailey Freedy said.

Marlington's Audrey Miller and Emma Jackson reached base, but there were two outs. A home run would have made it 4-2, Marlington, in the bottom of the sixth in a Division II regional softball championship game.

"Maybe any other day it goes out," Marlington head coach Joe Tagliarini said. "But the wind was blowing in hard. I thought it would to hit the wall. We were going to score two runs."

Freedy twisted every which way but wrong as she ran.

"I didn't know until the end I was going to get it," she said. "I was a foot from the wall."

Her catch preserved a 2-1 win and sent Canfield (23-2-2) to the state semifinals at Akron's Firestone Stadium. The Dukes (26-2) quietly watched the Cardinals pile onto the center of the Nordonia High School diamond.

Circumstances were eerie.

Canfield beat Marlington three months earlier in a girls basketball regional.

The program was trying for its only final four other than 2008, when the Cardinals won a state championship. Marlington aimed for its only final four other than 1996, when the Dukes won a state title.

Marlington's Tagliarini, 51, and Canfield head coach Michael Kernan, 57, have lived the same life.

They took over these programs just this season. In 2022, both were out of high school coaching after piloting teams to regionals in 2021. Both make their livings in the business world.

Kernan spent 21 years as head coach at Youngstown Ursuline before accepting a college job in an NAIA program in Ave Maria, Florida. He went it alone there for 100 days, leaving wife, family and friends back in Ohio.

"It wasn't as smooth as I anticipated," he said in explaining why he soon came home and spent last spring as a volunteer assistant at Hiram College.

The Canfield job opened. He inquired.

"I was told they had another really strong candidate," he said.

The candidate was Tagliarini.

"I was coaching at Revere in 2021," Tagliarini said. "I woke up one morning in pain. I blew out two discs. The doctor said if everything went perfect the recovery would take maybe eight months.

"I didn't want to leave Revere without a coach and stepped aside. I got cleared last February to resume activities. Ironically the Canfield and Marlington jobs had posted. I interviewed at both places."

The Marlington job opened when five-year head coach Jessica Collins moved to Indiana.

Both Kernan and Tagliarini arrived thinking they might have something.

Their teams played a game they will never forget.

A prime pitching duel pitted Marlington's Sofia Nase against Canfield's Malena Toth.

Nase, a senior, said she considered playing college softball but instead will focus on being an architecture student at Kent State.

"I knew this could be my last game," she said.

Toth, a junior, is committed to Buffalo of Mid-American Conference.

Tagliarini imagined a 2-1 or a 3-2 game because of the dominant pitchers.

Toth's 67-mph fastball led to three strikeouts in the bottom of the first, when she also gave up a home run to senior Emma Jackson. Even with the wind blowing in, Jackson's blast was way out.

Nase, 20-0 coming in, walked Faith Morell to start the second. Toth's bunt landed near Nase and knuckled away. The two-on, none-out situation set up an RBI single by Haydyn Merritt.

A million-dollar bloop and a no-dice blast decided the game.

Canfield's Jenna Triveri hit a soft pop that dropped near the right field line to start the fourth inning. It turned into a four-base epic when Triveri circled the bases amidst two throwing errors.

Pitcher Toth kept warning herself: "They're good hitters. Don't leave anything over the plate."

With two on and two out in the sixth, Maurer turned on a fastball.

"I thought it was going over," Toth said. "It was really hit hard."

It stayed in the park.

Orange T-shirts with the message "live in the moment" were all over Marlington's large cheering section.

The new coach advised everyone to hold that thought.

"I've owned five businesses," Tagliarini said. "I've learned that we're so goal-oriented and results-oriented that most people don't enjoy the process.

"I've preached to just enjoy the moment. These are the memories you'll take in life. Life is short."

Nearby, the star pitcher's eyes were moist in the wake of her last game, but as she encountered one teammate after another, Sofia Nase was smiling, too.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canfield softball gets past Marlington to OHSAA final four