Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Leyton Brau slides safely into second base in a recent game against Mankato Loyola at Mueller Park. The Chargers recently won the Tomahawk Conference title for the first time ever.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran first-year (with no high school baseball last year because of the pandemic) coach Jim Buboltz said that prior to the start of last season, himself along with assistant coaches John Giefer and Jeff Schoenherr had a vision.

That vision that the three coaches saw came through this year when the Chargers won the Tomahawk Conference title on Friday when Wabasso defeated New Ulm Cathedral 9-7.

If Cathedral had won that game, it would have shared the conference title with the Chargers.

It was the Chargers’ first-ever Tomahawk Conference baseball title and also their first baseball conference crown since they won the Valley Conference back in 1989.

“I was very excited that it was able to happen this year,” Buboltz said as his team captured the Tomahawk crown with an 11-3 record and finished 13-6 overall. “We won 11 of our first 12 games including winning our first eight games definitely helped out things. A new coach with a new mentality and new ideas about things and we were able to get off to that good start.”

As a first-year head baseball coach (Buboltz is also the head football coach for MVL) he got on the phone and made some calls after he was hired.

“I had an opportunity to talk to some former (baseball) coaches,” he said. “I was able to talk to coaches like Bob Fink who has won a state championship (with Springfield). He was one of the first people to call me and congratulate me (when I was hired). We talked philosophy. I also talked to baseball people like Art Westphal who is a coach and umpire and talked about the game of baseball. That was a big because it played into some of the ideas I had and it gave me a few new ideas too. I give a lot of credit to guys like that because I was able to talk baseball with them.”

Like all teams, the Chargers had no baseball season last year and Buboltz said that he had concerns with the year lay-off.

“But our senior leadership this year came up big and that helped.”

As games progressed, Buboltz said that he saw a tendency develop in his team: if the Chargers stayed in a game and kept it close, that they would find a way to win.

“This team never doubted themselves and we have great chemistry and that was big.”

Buboltz thought that there were several games that pointed the Chargers’ compass to the conference title.

“Going on the road and winning at Springfield was one game. Beating Wabasso and Carter Benz,” Buboltz said. “But the two most memorable games was the doubleheader with Cathedral. Both great games, we split two close games.

“And after we clinched at least a share of the conference (with a home 9-8 win over Springfield, their second win of the season over the Tigers) we got down on a knee and thanked our Lord and each other and a bunch of our fans and parents,” Buboltz said. “To have a season taken away last year and to come back and do this — it was a big moment for our kids and for our baseball program.”