NEW ULM — In just her third season as head coach of the Sartell Sabres softball team, Karlee Pfaff has guided her team to a berth in the Class AAA State Softball Tournament.

Pfaff, a 2014 graduate of New Ulm Cathedral, said she was on Cloud Nine after her Sabres defeated Rocori 4-0 for the Section 8AAA title on Thursday.

The Sabres, now 21-4 on the season, are the No. 1 seed in the state tournament and will face eighth-seeded Orono at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Caswell Park in North Mankato,

“Last year we were in Section 8, 4A, the largest schools in the state and we lost to Brainerd,” Pfaff said.

Pfaff said that being a coach of a state tournament team is awesome.

“And getting to the state is not about me,” said Pfaff, who is a fourth-grade teacher at the Riverview Intermediate School in the Sartell school system. “But it is really cool to help and give these girls and be part of this experience of going to the state. I was part of the Bob Mertz era (at New Ulm Cathedral) and it was part of the tradition and the high standard of making it to the state regardless if you were coming out of the losers bracket or in the driver’s seat. I am just excited that I get to watch them and give them the same experience that I had when I was playing.”

Pfaff played varsity softball with the Greyhounds as an eighth-grader in 2010, going on to win the Class A state tournament in 2014.

Pfaff was also one of the players who helped rebuild the softball program at the College of Saint Benedict, where she graduated from in 2018.

Pfaff was then an assistant head softball coach at Sartell before taking over the program three years ago, where she has a 53-20 record.

Pfaff said that playing for Mertz taught her to keep things simple.

“You have to execute and have good defense — good bunting,” she said “It is always the little things that become the big things if you want to win a state championship. We had one of those little things happen on defense in the top of the seventh inning that was huge and really buried [Rocori].”

Pfaff said that her team wanted to get to the state and win a championship.

“Moving down a class and with our success last year in the higher class the girls wanted to get back to the section championship and win a state title was so much more realistic,” Pfaff said. “Did I know that we would be here? Of course you do not know what is going to happen. But I wanted them to give me their all and I wanted to coach them up.”

Pfaff said that the players on her team hav e wanted a state title since they were in the 10-U program.

“They are excited to get going and I am excited too,” she said. “But we are not done yet. One game at a time and (hopefully) three more games together as a team.”