Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Josh Vander Plas connects for a hit in the first game of a South Central Conference baseball doubleheader on Tuesday at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Valley Lutheran used two stellar pitching performances from Kaden Peterson and Josh Vander Plas as the Chargers swept a South Central Conference doubleheader from St. Clair Tuesday afternoon at Johnson Park.

In the opener, Peterson allowed just one hit and struck out 13 in a 9-0 blanking of St. Clair.

Vander Plas followed that by matching Peterson’s one-hit performance with one of his own in a five strikeout, 15-0 five-inning win.

“I am very happy with our pitching and catching in both games,” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said as his team improved to 3-1 in conference play and 3-2 overall. “In the first game Brennan [Bendix] caught a nice game for KP and KP really pumped the zone with 13 strikeouts. And Josh was Josh in the second game.”

In the first game, Vander Plas led the Chargers offense with two hits and three RBIs — two of them coming in a five-run Chargers second inning that gave MVL a 6-0 lead.

Bendix added two RBIs in the game.

Jacob VanBerkom took the loss for St. Clair.

The Chargers, who play at Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther on Monday, took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Vander Plas base hit.

MVL then added five runs in the third inning. Two came on a Vander Plas single with two more coming on a Bendix single.

Peterson, who retired the first 12 straight Cyclone batters of the game, lost his no-hitter in the top of the fifth when VanBerkom led off with a single to rightfield. But he was doubled off base on the next batter.

The Chargers added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to close out the scoring.

In the second game, MVL used a 10-run third inning as they cruised to a 15-0 win with six of their nine hits in the game coming in that inning.

Dan Nicolia took the loss for St. Clair.

Buboltz said that getting that crooked number in the third inning gave all of his players to get some varsity game experience.

“We want to get everybody some innings. That is what we like,” he said. “I like to see those younger freshmen barreling the bat up and running the bases.”