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<\/p>\nNEW PRAGUE \u2014 Atwater has had a town team for more than 100 years. On Sunday, the denizens who frequent Kingery Field got to see something that\u2019s believed to have never happened before.<\/p>\n
The Chuckers won a state tournament game.<\/p>\n
Atwater beat the Nimrod Gnats 10-0 in seven innings on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Atwater’s Josh Kingery delivers a pitch against the Nimrod Gnats in the Class C state tournament on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, at New Prague Memorial Park Baseball Stadium.<\/p>\n
Michael Lyne \/ West Central Tribune<\/p>\n
Atwater\u2019s other state tournament appearances were in 2024, 1994 and 1932. The Chuckers lost to the Loretto Larks 2-1 in 10 innings in \u201824. They also lost in the first round in \u201894.<\/p>\n
The belief, according to David and Josh Kingery, is that Atwater also lost its first-round game at state in 1932.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we think,\u201d Josh said. \u201cWe\u2019re not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, Sunday\u2019s win they are sure about. The Chuckers are headed to the second weekend of the 32-team, single-elimination Class C tournament.<\/p>\n
Atwater plays the Hanska Lakers at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Mini Met in Jordan. Hanska beat the Waterville Indians 13-3 in eight innings on Saturday in Shakopee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Josh Kingery said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Atwater](\"https:\/\/cdn.forumcomm.com\/dims4\/default\/6701d60\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2119x1514+0+0\/resize\/840x600!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Ffb%2F32%2F6c96e59d408da1e2f82e1197e871%2Fatwater-chuckers-vs-nimrod-gnats-class-c-state-tournament-082326-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Atwater’s Jack Peterson sprints to third base against the Nimrod Gnats in the Class C state tournament on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, at New Prague Memorial Park Baseball Stadium.<\/p>\n
Michael Lyne \/ West Central Tribune<\/p>\n
Josh tossed six innings for the win, allowing one hit and no walks. He struck out eight. David, playing shortstop, went 4-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs. He also reached on an error.<\/p>\n
The Gnats (6-10) made a couple of errors and definitely struggled, perhaps looking a bit nervous. That wasn\u2019t the case for Atwater (17-8). The Chuckers appeared cool, calm and collected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just going out there and competing,\u201d explained Atwater designated hitter Jaxon Behm, who said he wasn\u2019t nervous. \u201cWe were expecting a good team. We didn\u2019t know much about them. We just came out and competed and played ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Kingery, a man of faith, said he played with confidence and expected his team to do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI serve a God that loves me whether I play well or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Josh Kingery drove in three runs. Behm went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. Behm\u2019s RBI single to center invoked the 10-run rule with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.<\/p>\n
Eight Chuckers had hits. All involved played error-less ball. Left-hander Josiah Utsch, Atwater\u2019s draftee from the Roscoe Rangers, pitched a scoreless seventh.<\/p>\n
It was a good win for a town that had never had one at state before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great win,\u201d said David Kingery, who was named the MaxBats player of the game, \u201cThey (the Gnats) were swinging aggressively on Josh. Six innings on 63 pitches. That\u2019s great.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made it really easy to play defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
David and Josh Kingery were starters on the \u201824 team and said that experience at Jordan\u2019s Mini Met, one of the state\u2019s best parks, helped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf our team hadn\u2019t been here before,\u201d David Kingery said. \u201cIt was really good to see our young guys get comfortable. That big inning (three runs in the third) helped a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of pops the balloon right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Atwater second baseman Regan Elton makes a throw to first base against the Nimrod Gnats in the Class C state tournament on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026, at New Prague Memorial Park Baseball Stadium.<\/p>\n
Michael Lyne \/ West Central Tribune<\/p>\n
Connar Johnson, the Gnats\u2019 second baseman and No. 5 hitter, had Nimrod\u2019s lone hit. It was an opposite-field blooper to right field that fell between the first and second baseman and the right fielder.<\/p>\n
Nimrod, located in the Menagha school district, was making its first state appearance since 2015.<\/p>\n
Atwater 032 130 1-10 12 0<\/p>\n
Hitting – Nimrod: Connar Johnson 1-3 2b \u2026 Atwater: David Kingery 4-5 r-2 rbi-2, Jon Broman 0-3 rbi bb, Josh Kingery 1-3 rbi-3 bb, Carson McCain 1-3 r bb sb, Jaxon Behm 2-5 2b rbi-2, Jack Peterson 1-3 r-2 bb, Brody Straumann 1-2 r-2, Jonas Morrison 1-2 r, Regan Elton 1-2 r-2 bb<\/p>\n
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) – Nimrod: Clay Erickson (L) 1.2-2-3-3-3-0, Gavin Klevgaard (Hawley draftee) 2.3-4-3-1-0-4, Gunnar Ament 2.2-6-4-4-3-3 \u2026 Atwater: J. Kingery (W) 6-1-0-0-0-8, Josiah Utsch (Roscoe draftee) 1-0-0-0-1-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW PRAGUE \u2014 Atwater has had a town team for more than 100 years. On Sunday, the denizens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[2529,93667,5],"class_list":["post-786735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-amateur-baseball","tag-atwater","tag-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117147855063904805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}