With two outs, a runner on second and the game tied at 6-all, Rathman sent the first pitch he saw deep into left-center to score Miah Garza and lift the Blackhawks to a 7-6 comeback win over Minnesota Valley Lutheran in a nonconference baseball season opener.

“I went up to that at-bat to just swing for the stars,” Rathman said. “That’s what I said when I was walking on my way out [of the dugout]. I swung at that high one and was like, ‘You know what? We’re good, we’re good.’ Then I saw it coming inside and I just swung, there was no thought process to that.”

Madelia trailed 6-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth before scoring three in that inning and four more in the seventh, with Garza’s double under the glove of a diving Drew Witte scoring two and tying the game at 6-all to set up Rathman’s walk-off double.

Garza was 2 for 4 with three RBIs to lead Madelia at the plate, while Evan Coil was 1 for 2 with an RBI and Zach Jacobs was 1 for 4 with an RBI and a double.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Madelia’s Zach Jacobs tags Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jensen Gerdts (6) at second during a nonconference baseball game Thursday at Searles Ballpark.

Jacobs’ double got Madelia on the board first in the sixth, scoring Tate Becker, who reached on a leadoff error. Coil then walked before Jacobs doubled in Coil. After a strikeout, Garza singled in Coil and later scored on an error in center field to have Madelia down 6-3.

Connor Bode took the loss in relief of Kyan Kube, who pitched two innings and allowed four hits and two walks while striking out three. Kube exited in the seventh after surrendering a leadoff single and a walk.

Bode allowed an RBI single to Coil that scored Noel Davila, who had the leadoff single in the inning. After getting back-to-back pop outs, Garza doubled in Becker, who walked earlier, and Coil to tie the game before Rathman’s game-winning double ended things.

“Super fun experience,” Madelia head coach Jimmy Kiefer said. “That was Conner’s first varsity hit, he’s a senior for us and that was awesome. I told him to go up there and just swing hard and he took the assignment better than anybody on the team and he got his money’s worth.”

Chargers starting righty Josh Vander Plas was dealing to start the game, allowing just one hit and a walk to Madelia in the fourth after a perfect first three innings. Vander Plas finished the game with 10 strikeouts and struck out the first five batters he saw.

Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said he had Vander Plas on a pitch limit and could have thrown him more but chose to switch things up with it being early in the season. Errors didn’t help the Chargers either as they had four of them that led to two unearned runs.

“We were going 60 pitches [for Josh] and he had struck out 10 of 12 guys, so he looked fabulous, it wasn’t anything more he had to show us today,” Buboltz said. “Granted the weather is nice, he probably could have gone maybe one more, maybe two weeks from now or a month from now, that would’ve been a no-brainer, but for today, that was fine. I think Kyan got out of the first inning, but the last two innings we just gave them too many extra outs and that’s just too bad.

“They stuck with it and we knew they were going to come eventually, but we’ve just got to keep working and I’ve got to do a better job of making sure I can put them in those situations and practices a little bit.”

Kiefer was preaching to his players early on to be less timid against Vander Plas, but he admitted getting good contact off of him was a big challenge in the first place.

“Josh is very talented,” Kiefer said. “He was getting to us with his velocity and his location and we saw him last year and only scored two off of him. Kept hanging in there, boys learned a little bit, they developed their approaches at the plate a little bit, but Josh is a very talented kid and any day you face Josh it’s difficult to get hits.”

Brennan Bendix led MVL at the plate, going 3 for 4 all on infield singles, while Vander Plas was 2 for 2 with a two-run double and two walks. Kaden Peterson was 2 for 4 two RBIs also for the Chargers.

Jacobs got the start for the Blackhawks and pitched three innings in a no decision, allowing four hits and a walk for three runs, one earned, while striking out six. Dalton Tatro pitched two innings in relief and allowed three hits and three walks for no runs while striking out three.

Garza gave up three hits and two walks for three earned runs with two strikeouts in an inning of relief. Kolten Tande pitched the final inning and allowed one hit while striking out one to earn the win.

The Chargers got on the board first in the third inning. Aiden Eckberg reached on a dropped third strike to lead off the inning before Jacobs got Bode looking for a strikeout and out No. 1. Bendix then legged out an infield single before Peterson singled to left to score Eckberg, taking second on the throw home.

Vander Plas doubled to center to score two and make it 3-0.

The Chargers got three more runs in the top of the sixth when Eckberg singled to right to lead off. A walk to Bode and another infield single by Bendix loaded the bases for Peterson, who singled to center to score two. A walk to Vander Plas and a wild pitch allowed Bendix to score for a 6-0 MVL lead.

The Blackhawks had a dominating seventh inning with their bats, but errors by MVL in the sixth proved costly and allowed the comeback to start in the first place, something Buboltz said were early mistakes to learn from.

“There’s some new guys with some great veterans, but to me it’s just, first game of the year, that’s all I can say,” Buboltz said. “You’ve got to learn some of these things and we learned today, we just learned with a loss. Lot more good things than bad things, though.”

MVL (0-1) is at Mankato Loyola for a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday game, while Madelia (1-0) hosts New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva in Searles at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Madelia will continue calling Searles Ballpark its home this season as its field regrows grass.