PLYMOUTH — Lillian Wright fell into her mom’s arms. Her eye black smeared under tears — not for the loss of a game, but for the goodbye she suddenly had to say to Bow softball.

Tuesday night, No. 4 Bow took on No. 1 Coe-Brown on Chase Field at Plymouth State. Headlined by a no-hitter from Bear sophomore Kylie Bieniek, Coe-Brown held the Falcons scoreless in a 4-0 win in the Division II semifinal.

“It’s not easy to play on a big stage like this,” Bow head coach Cassidy Emerson said after the game. “But every day we take it day by day. … We learn from every mistake.”

Learning has been key for this team. On July 22, Wright, a senior, will leave her hometown to start service in the U.S. Army. Four years of softball with Bow have made the catcher feel prepared to take on her new duty.

“This is all a mental game,” she said. “You really just have to stay up, whether you're winning or losing, support your team.”

Staying up was certainly the Falcons’ M.O. Tuesday evening. Despite facing a team that beat it 15-6 earlier in the season, Bow (14-6) kept the game alive through the top of the fourth inning before the Bears extended their lead.

Bieniek hit a double that drove two runners in and gave the Bears (17-1) a 3-0 lead. But the verdict wasn’t in yet: Bow freshman outfielder Cadence Malone caught a deep fly ball, allowing the Falcons to escape Coe-Brown’s bases-loaded threat down by just three runs.

Still: While Bieniek is skilled with the bat, she’s wicked with the ball. For the rest of the evening, the 2024 Division II player of the year spearheaded Coe-Brown’s defense, a machine that shut everything down.

“They played phenomenal defense,” Emerson said. “They're tough to beat.”

Red-clad girls in Coe-Brown’s dugout watched and passed around a bag of Nerds gummy clusters. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, they took advantage of an error from junior infielder Caly Poitras and scored their fourth and final run. Bow would need a miracle; it didn’t come.

Despite ending here, Emerson’s first season at the helm of a softball program with eight freshmen — more than half her roster — shouldn’t have been Bow’s best season ever. It was anyway. A combination of young talent, veteran leadership and plain, old-fashioned hard work led the Falcons to their first Final Four in program history. They did exactly what they set out to do when the season began three months ago.

“The first day of practice, all of us were like, ‘This is going to be our year,’” Emerson said. “New coaching staff, new players, let's just go all the way … and then as we got closer, and as the season went on, it's like, ‘We have what it takes.’”

“Every day in practice, we work hard,” Emerson continued. “This group is resilient. They deserve to be here.”

For Wright and fellow seniors Ella Roos and Emma Kelly, Emerson’s words strike a special chord. This year, they stuck together through a coaching change; last year, they watched their season end as soon as the playoffs began; now, they have to say goodbye to Bow and to their softball careers. 

“I’m gonna miss them so much, these four years with Ella and Emma especially, they’ve just always been there for me, and we really have been a trio,” Wright said.

In a year, Wright will be with the Army while Roos and Kelly will be rounding out their second semesters at the University of New Hampshire. The other 12 members of their team, however, will have another playoff bracket to tackle, boosted by the confidence of this record-breaking season and led by a coach with her sights set on the next big thing.

“We’re looking forward to being back,” Emerson said.

Sophie Levenson can be reached at slevenson@cmonitor.com.