WORCESTER — The Hampshire Regional softball team has played like a No. 1 seed all year, and when it earned the top mark in the MIAA Division 4 state tournament as the brackets were released in late May, the Raiders only elevated their already magnificent play on the field.

Hampshire left no doubt in its first three games of the Div. 4 bracket, dominating No. 32 Upper Cape Cod 21-0 before trouncing No. 16 Clinton 14-1 and overwhelming No. 8 Frontier 10-1 – combining to beat its opponents 45-1 en route to a third Final Four in the last five seasons.

In order to get back to the state final, the grandest stage of them all in Massachusetts high school sports, the Raiders are going to have to do something they haven’t yet done since the playoff format changed to the statewide model in the fall of 2021 – beat Joseph Case.

The Raiders will take on the fourth-seeded Cardinals on Thursday, and they have had Hampshire’s number in each of the last two years, starting in the 2023 state championship where Joseph Case knocked off the Raiders, 7-2. In 2024, Case sent Hampshire home in the quarterfinal round. Can the Raiders get it done in attempt No. 3 against their rivals from the southeast part of the state?

A much-improved Hampshire team (the Raiders are entering Thursday’s game at 23-1 overall compared to 15-8 last season) certainly thinks so.

“The chemistry is better, we all want it,” senior Teagan Charles said after the Raiders’ win over Frontier on Sunday. “I love all the girls, they’re all great. We’re just a big family and we’re ready to take it home.”

While some coaches take the approach of studying any film they can find online throughout the week to prepare for an opponent they haven’t played yet this season, Hampshire head coach Brian McGan isn’t too concerned about that. The longtime Raiders coach is only worried about the players in his dugout, not the ones across the diamond.

If Hampshire’s Ryanne Dubay continues to deal in the circle, and the powerful bats of Charles, CC Thayer, Raegan Dubay and Co. keep firing away at the plate, it can beat anybody in the state.

“It seems like everybody we play is always the same ones,” McGan said of seeing Joseph Case a third time in three years. “We’ll pick the bat and balls up, go at it again and see what happens. We don’t know anything about them, we didn’t get a chance to scout them, but we’ll see what happens.”

The Cardinals (17-6) are led by senior Breanna Fontes, junior Cailyn Durand and freshman Izzy Carvara – all three of which are extremely tough outs at the plate with batting averages above .500 in their 23 total games. Lila Alvarez holds down the pitching duties, but the sophomore hasn’t seen a lineup as fierce top to bottom as Hampshire’s yet in this tournament.

Last year, Thayer ripped three hits, including a double, in the Elite Eight contest with Joseph Case (an 11-3 loss), while Charles tallied an RBI single. Those two are the lone seniors on Hampshire’s young squad, and they are hoping to end their illustrious high school careers – which have included three Western Mass. titles in four trips – with the one piece of hardware they’ve yet to hoist: the Massachusetts state championship trophy.

“I’m ready for revenge,” Thayer said of the matchup with the Cardinals.

She and the Raiders are going to get their chance at 4 p.m. at Worcester State University on Thursday.