ABERDEEN — The Deuel Cardinals have ascended atop Class B softball. 

The Cardinals were playing in their third consecutive state tournament, finishing seventh in 2023 and 2024. The No. 1 seed Cardinals completed the Class B rise on Saturday, edging Gayville-Volin 3-1 for the state championship at Players Softball Complex. 

The school’s first-ever softball state championship was the culmination of the past three years, said Deuel coach Sarah Hagberg. 

“I said it from the first game that win was three years in the making, and this finally feels like what we have been working so hard for,” Hagberg said. “Finally.” 

Deuel senior pitcher Katrina Hagberg, Sarah’s daughter, echoed her mother’s sentiments and said the championship “does feel like three in progress to make it here.”

“It is very rewarding,” Katrina Hagberg said. “I didn’t know what to expect coming into this, but if we played our game we would be just fine.”

In the championship, Deuel recorded 12 hits and held Gayville-Volin to just three hits. Hagberg struck out 15 batters, allowed three hits, one earned run and walked two batters on 100 pitches. 

“She’s the one that keeps us in the game all the time and our bats have been really good this year, too,” Sarah Hagberg said. “But she’s been solid. Our mainstay all the time. She throws hard and a lot of the teams in Class B have a hard time catching up with her.”

Katrina Hagberg kept Gayville-Volin, which scored 11 unanswered runs in its semifinal win over Mobridge-Pollock, in check on Saturday. Gayville-Volin’s Ayla Dimmer had two hits and Maia Achen drove in the lone run, an RBI single in the sixth inning. 

“I just knew I had to pitch like I normally do,” Katrina Hagberg said. “I just had to pitch my game and play my game and treat it like a normal game and not let the nerves get to me.” 

Deuel’s bats produced enough offense to give Hagberg some breathing room. In the third inning, Aubrey Lanners and Roxanne Raml drove in runs for a 2-0 lead. Hagberg drove in a run in the fifth inning for a 3-0 advantage. 

Dimmer struck out two batters, allowed 12 hits, three earned runs and walked one batter. 

Graclyn Nielsen, Lanners, Hagberg and Rylynn Streich logged two hits apiece to pace the Deuel offense. 

“It was really big,” Katrina Hagberg said about Deuel’s offense. “I am so proud of us and I knew that if we used our bats like we normally do, we would be just fine.” 

In the seventh inning, Gayville-Volin’s Nevaeh Hauger struck out looking for the third out and Deuel celebrated the school’s first-ever state championship. 

“It means a lot,” Katrina Hagberg said. “I know it will always be remembered and it’s just a very fun thing I am going to be able to look back on and remember the whole state tournament and all the girls on the team and how amazing they are.”