Chatfield softball wins first state title in program history, beats Proctor 3-2

Jose Solis

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(ABC 6 News) — Making their first softball state tournament appearance since 2009, the Chatfield Gophers didn’t come to take part, they came to take over.

Chatfield jumped out to a 3-nothing lead in an unconventional way through balls and hit by pitches but Proctor slowly climbed back and made it a one-run ballgame.

From the third inning, it was a defensive ballgame where Chatfield had to play their best to preserve the lead. Proctor had some close moments but in the end, the Gophers’ Claire Springer struck out Baylie Peterson to clinch the 3-2 victory and give Chatfield to Class AA championship.

"That’s been my dream since the beginning of softball," Springer said after the game. "Since 10th grade when I was on varsity I said ‘If we ever go to State I want to be the last out or I want to throw that change up and have them swing at it.’ And I was like, I knew that I could do this because of — just the help of everyone."

Through all seven innings, Springer struck out four, allowing eight hits and two runs while teammate Devann Clemens had a team-high two RBIs. Peyton Berg added a hit plus a team-best six putouts during the contest.

The 2022 team is now forever etched in history as this is the first championship for the program. A Gopher is known to get it out of the dirt, and this team embodied that. With every loss they took, they bounced back two times harder.