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HS girls softball team wins championship behind arm of male pitcher

UPDATED

Takes perennial doormats to state tournament

A male pitcher has propelled his girls high school softball team to the Minnesota state tournament after pitching two consecutive scoreless games.

According to The Minnesota Star Tribune, Champlin Park High won the Class 4A, Section 5 Championship on Thursday by defeating Rogers HS behind the arm of Marissa Rothenberger.

Champlin, behind Rothenberger, also beat Rogers 2-0 three days prior. Rothenberger also pitched the whole game in a 4-2 win against Maple Grove HS on May 23.

Rothenberger’s squad opened the Class 4A, Section 5 Championship by trouncing Osseo 10-0.

Champlin Park enters the state tournament for the first time in its history — with a 21-2 record — after being “perennial bridesmaids for most of the past decade.”

However, according to Reduxx Rothenberger was born “Charlie Dean.” At age nine, his mother legally changed his name and sex on his birth certificate. Minnesota does not require that birth certificates indicate such a change has been made.

Neither the Tribune nor the Sun Post make note of Rothenberger’s biological sex, and the former uses a quote referring to the pitcher as “she.” The Tribune also deleted news of Champlin Park’s victory from its social media.

Reduxx notes Rothenberger “has never publicly stated” he was born male; however, one fellow softball player told the outlet (anonymously) that “I never thought [Rothenberger] was a boy, but after finding out he was a boy and then looking back on a lot of things I wouldn’t have looked at before, [it] definitely shows he is a boy, and I felt dumb for missing the clues.”

The player also noted Rothenberger “regularly used the female bathrooms” and “room[ed] with other girls.”

She added she was “upset” and “uncomfortable” that biological males are allowed to play on girls’ teams, and “especially being told that ‘as a girl I just have to learn to accept that men can take advantage of you even if they just want to identify as a female.’”

Rothenberger appears to be the pitcher noted in the lawsuit filed by Minnesota members of the group Female Athletes United. The suit states in part “In pitching, male advantage manifests through throwing faster and farther” and that “males also have an advantage in hitting and running—they can hit harder and run faster.”

MORE: Boy wins girls HS track events in Maine; parents are both college professors

UPDATE 6/7: Champlin Park ended up winning the state class 4A softball championship on June 6, once again behind the arm of Rothenberger who “shut down” the hitters from Bloomington Jefferson HS. According to the Star Tribune, Rothenberger “threw all seven innings, surrendered three hits, struck out six and didn’t walk a batter.” He was the winning pitcher “in all three Rebels games at state.”

IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Marissa Rothenberger pitches during a Champlin Park HS game; Dustin Grage/X

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