BRADFORD, Vt. — Great programs, even championship programs, can always keep getting better.

The University of Oklahoma softball team has won the last two national titles with a combined 115-7 record, but the Sooners have taken it to another level this year, riding a 43-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament and carrying just one loss all season.

In a similar vein, the two-time defending VPA Division III state champion Oxbow Olympians are even scarier this spring than either of their last two title-winning outfits. Following a 27-2 bludgeoning of a much-improved Thetford Academy team on Saturday, Oxbow sits at 11-0 with no clear threat in the division.

“Each team is special, don’t get me wrong,” Olympians coach Chuck Simmons said. “(But) this team is just so solid. They all come ready to play. Practice, they’re focused. It’s so great to have that well-oiled machine.”

With just three seniors gone from the 2022 squad that finished 14-3 and was perfect against D-III foes, this year’s team has pounded most of its opponents into oblivion, scoring at least 14 runs eight times. The three games where Oxbow has not scored in double digits? Victories over Lyndon and Enosburg Falls, who met in last year’s Division II championship game.

Those three games were the three the Olympians lost last season, so this group has already avenged all of those defeats. Oxbow took down the defending D-II champion Vikings 6-3 at home on April 20, then claimed a 7-4 victory at Lyndon on May 4. Sophomore pitcher Anastase Bourgeois threw a complete-game shutout in a 7-0 win at Enosburg Falls on April 29.

“Those are huge for us,” Simmons said. “Those are some of our biggest challenges of the year. I really wish we’d had them at the end of the season instead of at the beginning, but we take it as it goes.

“Those games, these girls are ready to play. In the dugout, they’re committed to each other, and it’s super special that way.”

The Olympians’ lineup has no breaks. Junior center fielder Hadlee Allen starts things off, and she doubled twice, singled and walked Saturday. Bourgeois and her younger sister, freshman Mazie Bourgeois, follow her, and then comes senior catcher Makenna Simmons, Chuck’s daughter, in the cleanup spot.

Once opposing pitching staffs get through those powerful bats, they still have to deal with the likes of juniors Lily Lahaye and Faith Eastman and sophomore Maggi Ellsworth, who combined for seven hits against Thetford.

“Hitting is definitely contagious,” Mazie Bourgeois said. “We all do a really good job at timing the pitcher and realizing what the batters before and after us are facing, and we use it for our next at-bat.”

The elder Bourgeois, who was Oxbow’s top pitcher two years ago as an eighth grader, leads the way in the circle, but senior Brianna Gray and freshman Noemi Rosa give the Olympians other solid options. Oxbow’s staff has allowed just five runs over the last four games.

Perhaps the best chances for the O’s to keep getting better comes immediately after each game. Simmons gathers the team in a circle and asks each player to point out an observation from the game, whether it’s something that went well or something they feel they still need to work on, whether individually or as a team.

“That’s the biggest thing,” Simmons said. “It’s great to hear coach talk, but it’s great to have that feedback from all the girls, so that every player knows what each girl is thinking.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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