AMHERST — As the innings ticked by Saturday – seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th – and tension grew across Sortino Field, the opportunity arose for someone to etch their name into Franklin County softball lore on the sport’s biggest stage.

Enter Marilyn Abarua.

The Turners Falls senior center fielder had already shown a flair for the dramatic – just three days earlier, she registered the game-winning hit in extra innings to power the top-seeded Thunder to a state semifinal win over Georgetown. What might she have in store for Saturday’s state final?

Locked in a 1-1 game with second-seeded Greenfield in the bottom of the 10th inning of the MIAA Division 5 championship, Abarua strode to the plate with two outs. Fellow senior Madi Liimatainen had just walked, and ultimately stole second base to put herself in scoring position for Abarua. The team’s No. 3 hitter was arguably the hottest hitter in the entire Division 5 tournament, and already had two hits to her name on Saturday.

“This was my last game as a senior so I was thinking, it's been a long game already. We're in the 10th inning. So someone has got to stop this,” Abarua said. “I have the confidence, because I have done it before.”

Abarua drove a MacKenzie Paulin pitch through the left side of the infield, setting Liimatainen in motion from second base. She rounded third and headed toward home, touching the plate just in time to beat a strong throw from Greenfield left fielder Sophia Rotkiewicz and lift Turners to a 2-1 victory and a 12th state championship in program history.

It was the second consecutive state title for the Thunder, which beat Georgetown in last year’s title game. Greenfield had won the previous two championships, including a decisive win over Turners in the 2023 final.

“Madi was out there [at second base] just waiting for me to hit it,” recalled Abarua of that 10th-inning at bat. “I was the one that needed to do it, so I just did my job. I was telling myself, ‘Marilyn, you got to do it just one more time.’”

Liimatainen’s run was the first since Turners tied the game back in the sixth inning. It was the third state crown for the senior pitcher, who also won the 2021 championship as an eighth grader.

“I knew that she was going to get it,” Liimatainen said of Abarua’s walk-off single. “And when she starts fouling off balls and then she's got her timing down, I knew it was coming.”

Longtime Turners Falls head coach Gary Mullins said Abarua has been one of the most improved players in program history. While opposing pitchers largely focus on Liimatainen at the plate, Abarua has quietly turned into a lethal bat right behind her in the heart of the Turners order.

“She got a huge hit for us. Not just today and against Georgetown, but she's done it all year long,” explained Mullins. “And when teams walk Madi, because they walk Madi a lot, you’ve got to have somebody behind her and that little kid, she just competes. She’s just a gritty little competitor and honestly, you don't want anybody else up in that situation. She's been amazing. She really has been amazing for us. When she first started playing softball for us, she didn't know what an out was. She’s come a long, long way. And she’s a great young lady, everybody loves her.”

Saturday’s game was everything a state final should be. Two dominant pitchers in Liimatainen and Paulin kept both offenses in check for the majority of the afternoon, and both defenses locked in behind them. Liimatainen struck out 11 and walked four in 10 innings of work, while Paulin punched out 11 batters as well to go with three walks in a complete-game outing.

Greenfield head coach Ray Dodge said Saturday’s game was one for the ages, despite the Green Wave falling just short. It was their third state final appearance in four years, a high water mark for a tradition-rich program.

“Through the lens of time, we’ll be able to say this was a successful season because it really was, but right now it’s a difficult thing to put in perspective,” admitted Dodge. “I told the girls afterward that there’s nothing to hang their heads about. They just took the No. 1 seed to 10 innings in the state final. It’ll take some time for that to sink in, I think.”

Greenfield struck first on Saturday, pushing across the game’s opening tally in the top of the fourth inning. Gloria McDonald walked with one out, and eventually moved to second on a Carson Farrell base hit with two outs. Rotkiewicz followed with a sharp single up the middle, and the junior’s grounder plated McDonald for a 1-0 Greenfield advantage.

It looked like that run might hold up behind Paulin and a sterling defensive effort. The Merrimack-bound pitcher set Turners down in order in the bottom of the fourth, then worked around an Ameliya Galbraith double in the fifth when she induced a Mia Marigliano flyout to center field.

Liimatainen did her job in the circle, preventing Greenfield’s offense from adding any insurance, and the Thunder finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth. Abarua singled with one out, stole second and scored when Janelle Massey launched a hard-hit double into the left center field gap to make it 1-1. A ground out moved pinch runner Autumn DiMare to third base with two outs, but Paulin dug in and struck out Madisyn Dietz for the final out to keep it a tie game.

The game eventually moved into extra innings, and both teams threatened in the eighth. Greenfield had two runners on after Olivia Lemay singled and Grace Laurie walked. But Liimatainen recorded a strikeout to end the inning.

“When it goes that long, it gets to be pretty testy and I thought defensively, we played very well. We made plays in the infield,” Mullins said.

In the home half of the eighth, Turners (22-4) had Liimatainen and Massey on base after both were walked. With one out, Autumn Thornton hit a fly ball to center field that was caught, and Liimatainen tagged up and advanced to third base. But the senior was ruled to have left the base too early, and Greenfield tagged second for the third out that capped a double play.

Neither team threatened in the ninth, and Greenfield put two runners on in the top of the 10th thanks to an Anna Bucala walk and a Paulin single. But Liimatainen got a line out to first base and a strikeout to end the inning, setting the stage for Abarua.

“I've done this for a few years. It doesn't get any easier,” admitted Mullins. “You hope you don’t make the wrong decision, you hope you don’t make a mistake for your team. I think we did OK.”

Olivia Lemay paced the Greenfield offense with three hits out of the No. 2 spot in the lineup, while Farrell and Paulin had two hits apiece for the Wave (19-7).

Abarua’s three-hit outing led the way for Turners, and Marigliano, also a senior, doubled off the fence in left field in the third inning. Galbraith had two hits out of the No. 8 spot, and the freshman flashed some leather at shortstop.

“Honestly, there's no words to describe the feeling,” said Liimatainen. “I've won a few [state titles] before, and that was a great feeling, but this is something different. It's honestly a completely different feeling and playing your rival and beating them in the final is something that I will never forget. And that's what we wanted. We wanted revenge. We didn't like how it happened our sophomore year [a 10-2 loss in the state final] and being here three years in a row and getting to win two out of three of them, it feels pretty good.”

Abarua agreed.

“Everyone was asking if we were going to beat Greenfield or was it going to be the same thing from two years ago? So that fired us up,” she said. “It's Greenfield. We love playing against Greenfield. It's a rival. It's a good show for everyone. So we just had to go out there and win it. We wanted to win this game just as much as they wanted to win it so one of us had to go out and work harder than the other to win a title. And we did it. We did it.”