NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran senior Teddy Giefer will continue to play baseball next year after he signed with University of Minnesota-Crookston.

UM-Crookston, a Division II school in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, will give Giefer a chance to both pitch and play first base.

“It’s primarily academics, they have one of the best natural resource programs in the state and that’s what I wanted to major in,” Giefer said. “I met with the coaches one of the first visits and they said they would keep an eye on me. That legion summer last year, they follow New Ulm anyway just because it’s such a big baseball town and that type of thing. They came to some of my games and in November they offered me a spot.”

He liked the small campus size and that made him feel more at home.

“I’ve gone up there twice now and it’s a slightly smaller campus, which coming from MVL, I didn’t want to go to a big school, so I was perfectly ok with a smaller campus,” Giefer said. “Everyone kind of knows everybody and it was very welcoming overall.”

In his career at MVL, Giefer hit .292 with 12 doubles, three triples, 30 RBIs, and eight stolen bases. Pitching-wise, the lefty was 3-2 with a 3.50 ERA, allowing 16 earned runs over 32 innings pitched. He also played on New Ulm’s Legion Gold team last summer and that team made it to the state tournament.

He said he officially signed last November.

“They had me come down and do a workout early November and then I signed my letter of intent on the 13th (of November),” Giefer said.

He missed his senior season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His head coach this year was supposed to be Jim Buboltz.

“Teddy was ready to have a giant year this year,” Buboltz said. “He had a phenomenal summer last year and was primed to become a prime time player in all facets of the game. Teddy’s best baseball days are still ahead of him.”

He’s disappointed he didn’t get a chance to play his senior season. The Chargers had some key players coming back this year and were hoping to have a big year.

“I was really looking forward to senior year, especially with coach Buboltz,” Giefer said. “He was really looking forward to it as well, to have that last experience with those guys would’ve been nice, and the legion too, obviously. We would’ve had a really good team again. I’m just hoping that the amateur season might end up happening, we’ll just see what happens.”

He said he’s been working out at home and going to the Courtland ballpark with his brother to hit and pitch at least a couple times a week. He’s working on both because the Crookston staff said he would possibly doing both next year.

“The best thing about it was they said you have the ability to pitch or play first base at that level,” Giefer said. “I’m just looking forward to have the opportunity to have both of those. Obviously it’ll be their decision in the end, but I’m going to have to work really hard to be able to do that at that level and it’s not going to be easy at that level.”

He’s looking forward to playing against some of the guys he competed against in high school in the NSIC.

“That’ll be lots of fun, playing against Nolan Drill [New Ulm High School player and fellow New Ulm Gold player who will play at Upper Iowa University and even Mason Rummel [Springfield graduate who will play at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall], that type of thing to have and see those guys and know that they’re in the conference is great.”

He’s looking forward to his next stop even if baseball doesn’t work out.

“Just the opportunity to play in college and against that level is great,” he said. “Obviously there’s going to be a lot of guys and I’m going to have to work to get a spot, but just having the opportunity is what I’m most excited about.”