Bremen softball enters State Finals with "unfinished business"

Bremen, Ind. - The vast majority of Bremen softball's list of goals have been accomplished.

But the biggest is up next, and senior Kaelyn Shively made it known her team desperately wants to cross it off.

“We’ve been there. We know what to expect. But we do have unfinished business, too.”

The Lions return to the State Finals for the second straight season, but this time they bring even more confidence that they can get the job done.

"'Comfortable' is a great word for it," said head coach Mike Huppert. “They know the situation that we’re in right now. We’re always playing one game at a time and only have one game on the schedule. Now we only have one game one the schedule, which is this Saturday.”

“We don’t want the same outcome as we had last year," added star junior Erin Coffel, who belted her 50th career homer run in a Semi-State win over Boone Grove. "So this week we want to work much harder than we did last year. We really want the blue (medal) this year. We really want the blue.”

So far, Bremen has roared through the 2A state tournament behind power hitting and consistency in the circle, winning their two Semi-State games 9-0 over Oak Hill and 8-2 over Boone Grove.

“We’re doing all our little things correct," said Shively. "Our coaches are pushing us to the best of our abilities. We’re pushing ourselves to the best of our abilities. We want this. We want to solve what went unfinished last year.”

So the plan for Saturday's championship game against Tecumseh? Simply, keep it going.

“We know the competition is going to be the best of the best, so this week we know we have to take our game to the next level," said Coffel. "That’s what we’ve been working on for the past year and a half.”

“Look at the stage we’re on," said Huppert. "Look at the stage we’re going to be on again. When we see that sea of green or whatever color they’re wearing for us in West Lafayette, we’re just going to enjoy every bit of it.”

The 2A state title game is set for 1:30 on Saturday at Purdue University's Bittinger Stadium in West Lafayette.