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Chargers earn share of Tomahawk title in win over Tigers

File photo by Jeremy Behnke Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Caleb Carlovsky takes a swing during a recent home game at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — For the first time in 42 years, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers will at least share in a Tomahawk Conference baseball title.

The Chargers overcame a 5-1 Springfield lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, tacked on three more in the fifth and then hung on for a 9-8 win over the Tigers Thursday afternoon at Johnson Park.

Josh Giefer got the win for MVL (12-3, 11-2). He went 6 1/3 innings, fanned four and allowed eight hits. Leyton Brau came in and got the save, getting the final two outs with the tying tun on base.

Tori Helget took the loss for Springfield, now 8-5 in the conference and 10-6 overall.

Brau and Giefer each had two hits for MVL and both drove in two runs.

Jacob Nachreiner had two hits for the Tigers.

“Our kids had not played good baseball this week,” Chargers coach Jim Buboltz said. “We struggled this week and we struggled at the beginning of this game. But we had players like Leyton at the plate and Josh on the mound — and what a defensive play by Caleb Carlovsky late. We did not help ourselves early, but we did at the end.”

The Tigers took a 3-1 lead after the first inning and increased that to 5-1 in the top of the fourth when the Chargers broke loose for five runs.

Singles from Kaiden Hammerschmidt, Garrett Parker and Mitchell Ulrich loaded the bases. Freshman Zach Riederer singled to score Hammerschmidt. A wild pitch scored Parker.

Brau singed in another run and Giefer followed with an RBI single to tie the game before a Cole Thompson sacrifice fly gave MVL a 6-5 lead.

The Chargers added three more runs in the fifth on an error and RBI singles from Brau and Giefer.

“We just put the bat on the ball in those two innings and we had guys come through with clutch hits,” Buboltz said.

The Tigers clawed back with a run in the sixth and came up short with two in the top of the seventh.

A big play in that sixth inning was made by Carlovsky at third when he stabbed a hard line drive off of the bat of Brenden Buerkle and then tagged out Helget at third.

“This was building up inside of us all week,” Buboltz said. “So it was so good to see this happen today.”

MVL is at Nicollet on Monday. Springfield is at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Tuesday.

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