The Richmond High softball team will try to dethrone two-time defending Western Maine Class D champion Buckfield on Wednesday night (7:30) at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

The Bobcats (15-1), the top-seeded team, swept the season series against the No. 2 Bucks (11-3). Richmond outscored Buckfield by a combined 7-1 score in the two victories.

Both teams lined up scrimmages to prepare for what seems like an annual regional final showdown — this will be the fourth consecutive year (and sixth of the last seven) that Buckfield and Richmond will play for Western D title.

Richmond played Class C Monmouth and Class B Gray- New Gloucester, while Buckfield scrimmaged Telstar and Poland.

“That helped us immensely,” Richmond coach Rick Coughlin said.

Buckfield coach Ken Farrington, whose daughter Kacey is the ace of the pitching staff, and Coughlin knew this championship meeting was coming. Sure, they preached the one-game-at-a-time mantra, but they also prepared for the inevitable.

Consider: Kacey Farrington didn’t pitch against Richmond in their May 24 game. Instead, the senior played shortstop. She said she was battling a sore shoulder, but Ken Farrington acknowledged Monday night that he didn’t want the Bobcats to face his daughter twice. He says he hopes the strategy will pay off Wednesday.

If that’s not prepping for a future meeting — the regional final was still about three weeks away — then what is?