AURORA — Aurora’s 48-game conference win streak in softball came to an end with a 10-4 loss to Tallmadge April 22.
So did an era.
Aurora-Tallmadge has long been the must-watch game in the Suburban American. Alas, the Blue Devils will no longer be in the Suburban League next season with their move to the Metro Athletic Conference. So although the longtime rivals may play in 2027 and beyond, it will not be the same.
Greenmen coach Sam Petrash knows that. And Petrash knows that while programs like Copley, Highland and Revere have provided plenty of competition over the years and will continue to provide plenty of competition, something is lost with the Blue Devils leaving the league.
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“This is a fantastic rivalry,” Petrash said. “Every year, it comes down to us and Tallmadge.”
Petrash noted the rivalry went back before the schools were in the same conference. Back in Aurora’s Chagrin Valley Conference days — when his older daughter, Sarah, was playing — the Greenmen lost an epic 2010 district semifinal to Tallmadge in extra innings at Firestone Stadium.
“[It was] probably one of the best games I ever watched or saw,” Petrash said. “It was [a] 1-0 ballgame, nine innings, that they won on a ball we threw away. It’s always been intense between us and Tallmadge.”
Being in the same league only added to that rivalry. It seemed like every time the Blue Devils and Greenmen squared off these last several years, titles were on the line.
But it was more than that.
Aurora-Tallmadge usually meant beautiful softball with strong fundamentals and deep lineups. It was the best kind of rivalry — intense but respectful.
“Going back to [previous Tallmadge coaches] Ed Seeker, Brittany Lightel, Meghan [Haynes] last year, [it has been] very intense but spirited, like respectful,” Petrash said. “Both programs have a lot of respect for each other, and I sensed that with them toward Aurora, too, so we have a lot of respect for them, and I feel it’s reciprocated.”
“It’s a good rivalry,” Blue Devils coach Paul Becks added. “I enjoyed watching [my daughter] play them and I enjoy coaching against them.”
Their April 22 clash was a fitting end to the era.
Once again, the teams sit atop the Suburban American. The Greenmen won this year’s first meeting in Tallmadge. The Blue Devils returned the favor in Aurora. The teams similarly split their season series in 2023, when Tallmadge won its last state title (and Aurora won the league title).
That year not only included the Blue Devils’ last state title, it also was their last win over the Greenmen heading into their latest game, which was certainly a topic of conversation on the bus ride to Aurora.
“On the bus, we had a pregame talk and we just said we got to be up the whole game, no matter the outcome, no matter what happens,” Blue Devils senior Sophia Paonessa said. “We did that, and I’m very proud of them for doing that.”
Outside of 2024, when the Greenmen run-ruled the Blue Devils twice, the rivalry has always been close. Even when Aurora won six consecutive games over Tallmadge, four of those were by four runs or fewer. The Blue Devils’ April 22 win continued an old tradition, with the teams splitting their season series in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2026.
Both sides looked equal again for much of their most recent game at Aurora. Both hit the ball plenty hard. Both made spectacular catches, especially in center, where Greenmen senior Lailah Bohanan and Blue Devils junior Kiera Staszak made compelling cases for a Gold Glove award.
The separation occurred in the fifth inning, when both teams hit towering homers. The difference was Paonessa’s blast came with two runners on and Aurora junior Lila Bultrowicz’s moonshot was a solo homer. The Blue Devils thus took a two-run lead into the sixth — and added on.
Paonessa, a Malone commit, has emerged as one of the top power hitters in the Suburban League. A year ago, six of her 17 hits — five doubles and a home run — went for extra bases. This season, 12 of the senior slugger’s 15 hits have gone for extra bases, with seven doubles, two triples and three homers. Oh, and those three homers came over a two-day stretch, with two blasts against Cuyahoga Falls the day before her seminal shot at Aurora.
“It’s really exit velocity, just working with my trainer Micaela Minner, going for hitting lessons,” Paonessa said. “She’s great. [I] love her.”
It helps that Tallmadge can mix Paonessa’s power with plenty of speed. The Blue Devils’ top two hitters, Aubrey Almond and Staszak, wreaked havoc with their bunts against the Greenmen. Almond had a bunt base hit as part of Tallmadge’s two-run third, then slapped a single by Aurora’s drawn-in infield in the fifth. Staszak brought home another run with a perfectly placed bunt in the seventh.
As Petrash said, “They couldn’t have rolled the ball out any better on their bunts.”
As the Blue Devils and Greenmen turn their focus toward securing a league championship in their final year together in the Suburban, they seem to agree the rivalry shouldn’t go away.
“Coach Becks said, ‘Make sure we get on the schedule next year,'” Petrash said. “So it’s something that we want to do because we understand the rivalry.”
Contact Jonah L. Rosenblum at jrosenblum@recordpub.com and follow him on Twitter at @JLRSports.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: April 22 game was the end of an era for Aurora-Tallmadge softball
Reporting by Jonah Rosenblum, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
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