Daniel Bollingberg has played baseball for Lyle-Pacelli for a long time, but next year he’ll be playing for a new team. Bollingberg, a senior who was been playing varsity baseball for LP since he was an eighth grader, has made the commitment to play college baseball at Division III University of St. Thomas next season.

St. Thomas, which is located in St. Paul, finished 24-16 overall last season and it has competed in the NCAA Regional playoffs in 19 of the last 21 years. The Tommies have advanced to six NCAA College World Series and they won the national title in 2001 and 2009.

“It was the one school that basically had everything,” Bollingberg said of St. Thomas. “They had baseball, along with the school and the location. It was basically everything that I wanted.”

Bollingberg hit .556 with 13 doubles, four triples and 15 RBIs, and he stole 28 bases for LP last season. As a pitcher, Bollingberg went 6-1 with an ERA of 1.02 and he’s hoping to have another solid season this spring.

Bollingberg has seen his former teammate Jordan Hart go on and receive playing time at Division II Minnesota State University, which gives Bollingberg confidence in his ability to play for the Tommies.

“I always knew [Jordan] was really good and to see him do it at the college level definitely raises my confidence level,” Bollingberg said. “Hopefully I can duplicate that and be able to compete and contribute on a college level team.”

Bollingberg has played shortstop and pitcher for the Athletics and he’ll likely be playing somewhere in the infield at St. Thomas. Bollingberg started playing with LP the same year that head coach Brock Meyer took over and he also played a big role on the state qualifying Austin Post 91 Legion baseball team last summer.

Meyer has been influential to Bollingberg as a player.

“It’s been a really good journey with [Meyer]. He’s helped me with everything I need,” Bollingberg said. “It’s been really good playing with all of the Lyle-Pacelli guys and also getting to know all of the Austin guys over the summer. I couldn’t really ask for anything more as far with the guys we’ve had and the winning culture we’ve had on both teams.”

Bollingberg said he will always cherish the games he played in the state legion baseball tournament last season and now he’s looking to make his last year of baseball with LP count.

“You want to embrace it and you have to enjoy all of the time you’ve had with the guys, but you don’t want to stop working it,” Bollingberg said.

LP will open its season when it plays at Houston 4:30 p.m. April 12.