MIDDLEBORO — With record energy levels, the Middleboro High School Sachems softball team will head to Amherst for its second-consecutive state championship game.

This time around, the Sachems will play Norton High School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The date and time of the game are yet to be announced due to possible inclement weather this weekend, according to Middleboro softball Head Coach Dan Sylvia.

Now, the team’s energy after 20 regular season games and four playoff games is higher than ever, according to senior Alex Welch.

“We’re very excited, very energized,” Welch said. “The last couple of games, we’ve brought the energy to the games, which is something that all season long we’ve been kind of missing. But I think we’ve realized how close we’ve gotten and it’s our last shot and we really want to win.”

To Sylvia, the team having more energy going into the championship game than at any other point in the season is a “game changer.”

“No matter what’s going on, to hear the bench and the players really bringing the energy up, to me it’s so important,” Sylvia said. “That’s what this game is all about. You play on emotion.”

Welch and fellow senior Cassidy Machado want to end their high school careers with positive emotions.

“I know all the seniors right now, we’re really trying to bond together and create these last moments,” Machado said. “We didn’t know when our last game was going to be. But now we have a set ending and we really want to take that to the next level, more than what we did last year, and hopefully take home the championship.”

Eight of last season’s nine starters returned with lessons learned and scores to settle from the 8-5 loss to Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School in the 2022 championship game.

Sylvia scheduled the Sachems to face teams from larger schools toward the end of this season. The team lost four games in the final month before the playoffs, but according to Sylvia, the challenging opponents set Middleboro up for a deep postseason run.

“Those are the games we needed to get ready for the tournament,” Sylvia said. “Sometimes, parts of your schedule aren’t as strong as other parts, but we knew the last half of our schedule would determine who we were and where we were going.”

One of those games ended in a 3-0 loss at home to Silver Lake Regional High School on May 13. Eleven days later, they went to Silver Lake and beat them 7-1.

“We weren’t going to run into anybody [in the playoffs] who was going to be above that” level, Sylvia said of facing regular season opponents including Silver Lake and Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School. “And so far, it’s proven to be true.”

In the playoffs, the Sachems beat Hanover High School 8-2 in the round of 32, beat Arlington Catholic High School 12-0 in the round of 16, beat Hudson High School 8-5 in the quarterfinals, and beat Triton Regional High School 3-0 in the semifinals.

“For us seniors, it’s almost been a checklist from awards night to graduation, and the final checkpoint is the state championship game,” Machado said. “We all want to bring the energy to take it home.”