AMHERST — Powered by explosive offense and solid defense, the Middleboro High School Sachems softball team won the state championship.

The Sachems, ranked sixth in the tournament, beat fourth-ranked Norton High School 15-3 in a dominant performance in the division three state championship game at UMass Amherst’s Sortino Field on Sunday, June 18.

“We just knew today was our day,” Head Coach Dan Sylvia said after the game. “We’ve been working so hard for this.”

Last season, Middleboro lost the state championship game 8-5 to Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. Eight of last season’s nine starters returned this year with unfinished business.

“We like to call it our revenge tour,” said senior pitcher Cassidy Machado, who pitched the whole game in Sunday’s championship game. “This was our revenge tour, coming back because we should have won it last year. We have a great group of seniors and we put it together to really come out and win today.”

Middleboro ended the regular season with a 16-4 record before winning playoff games against Hanover High School, Arlington Catholic High School, Hudson High School, and Triton Regional High School to get to the final.

The championship game was a high-scoring one, and the entire team contributed to the effort.

Middleboro jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. After a couple of groundouts, senior Alex Welch walked for the first of four times in the game, senior Melody Rees hit the ball over the Norton centerfielder’s head to drive in Welch, and senior Eva Jenness hit a hard ground ball to force a Norton error at third base and tie the game when Rees ran home.

Norton leveled the score in the bottom of the first thanks to aggressive baserunning.

A five-run third inning put Middleboro in the lead. The Sachems loaded the bases — thanks in part to Norton intentionally walking Welch — and senior Madison Ryder drove in two runs with a hit to deep left field.

In the same inning, junior Cristina Chane hit the ball off the wall for a double that drove in another two runners. Then, senior Paige Rooney hit a single up the middle to drive in Chane and give Middleboro a 7-2 lead.

A 2-run home run over the 220-foot centerfield fence from Welch extended the Middleboro lead to 9-3 after four innings. That meant she hit the ball out of the park in each of Middleboro’s five playoff games, according to Sylvia.

“I felt like, yeah, I can hit a little more,” Welch said with a laugh. In regards to being walked four times, she added, “It was a lot of respect from them. It made me feel really good because the one time I did get a hit, it was a home run.”

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Norton put runners on second and third base, but Machado pitched out of the jam and caused head coach Dan Sylvia to fist-pump with pride.

“Cass and bats,” Sylvia said. “That’s what I wanted us to bring today. Cassidy did her job, and we did the rest with our bats.”

Machado contributed in the batters’ box in the top of the fifth, hitting the ball to rightfield and driving in a runner to push Middleboro’s lead to 10-3.

With the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning, Ryder hit a bouncing ball to first base which caused an error and allowed Welch to score. Rooney followed that up, hitting a single to push the score to 12-3.

Machado hit a hard grounder to third base, causing an error and seeing the Middleboro lead extended to 13-3.

In the seventh inning, Ryder hit a ground ball that drove in Welch, who reached home plate five times in the game. Then, a ball hit into left-centerfield by Chane saw Rees score to make the game 15-3.

“As far as I’m concerned, they’ve been one of the best programs in division one, two, or three,” Sylvia said about his team. “I’ll tell you what, I know we can play with anybody. There’s no doubt about it. We have a pretty tough schedule ourselves, purposefully, we bring in tougher opponents to help get us ready for this moment, and they showed it today.”

A groundout and flyout in the bottom of the seventh put Middleboro one out away from the trophy. Machado struck her opponent out to end the game and earn Middleboro’s first-ever state championship in girls’ sports.

“With all the challenges we’ve been through this year, the feeling of relief when the Norton player swung and missed, it was the best feeling ever,” Machado said. “It was a feeling of relief, like, we finally did it.”