Staff photo by Ari Selvey Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jensen Gerdts (6) throws a baseball in from left field during a South Central Conference baseball game against Maple River Tuesday at Mueller Park.

NEW ULM — It is not like the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers did not have their chances Tuesday afternoon at Mueller Park in a South Central Conference baseball game.

They did.

Unfortunately the Chargers did not capitalize on them.

MVL stranded eight runners on base — seven of them in scoring position — and fell 1-0 to the Eagles.

Caleb Thompson got the win for Maple River (11-3, 3-3). He allowed six hits and struck out five.

Josh Vander Plas took the loss for the Chargers (7-6, 4-4). The senior right-hander permitted one run on five hits while striking out three.

Blake Sexton had a triple, with Kyan Kube adding a double for the Chargers.

“We left a lot of guys on base today,” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said. “We had some good opportunities — some of those opportunities may have been with two outs — but we had opportunities. Guys never quit and we played really good defensively today.”

The Chargers, who play at Sleepy Eye Public before facing New Ulm Cathedral on Monday, mounted their first threat off of Thompson in the second inning when Sexton laced a two-out triple. But Thompson got the third out on a pop out.

In the third, Kube drove a leadoff triple to the gap in right field. But Thompson set the next three batters down in order.

The Eagles scored the only run of the game in the top of the fourth when Wade Birr singled and came home on a Wade Walters’ single.

MVL would use a Kaden Peterson leadoff single and a one-out error in the bottom of the fourth to place runners on first and second with one out.

But Thompson fanned the next two batters to end another Chargers threat.

In the fifth, an Aiden Eckberg two-out walk and a Brennan Bendix infield single mounted another threat that Thompson poured water on.

“We had a couple of line drives that went right at their players,” Buboltz said. “We would get that first hit in an inning, but we could not get that big hit to drive them in today.

“Good pitching, good defense and keep putting guys on base. We will break through eventually — we are hitting a little wall right now, but we will break through.”