Over the next couple of months, major-league baseball teams will head south for the start of spring training and Oakville Senior High School graduate Dan Rohlfing will begin his third season with the Minnesota Twins organization.

Rohlfing recently returned from Adelaide, Australia, where he played for the Adelaide Angels of the South Australian Baseball League.

“The Twins have been sending players over there the last five or six years and my coach called me up one day and said that a team in Australia needed a catcher,” he told the Call. “The competition was pretty decent and it was good ball to play during November and December.”

Rohlfing now is looking forward to spring training, which starts March 12.

Last season, the former Oakville catcher batted .200 with eight RBI and 17 walks with the Gulf Coast League Twins in Fort Myers, Fla.

“Last season, I played pretty well,” he said. “Defensively, I caught pretty well, but hitting-wise, I would have liked to done a little better. I’ve been training pretty hard this off-season and I’m hoping to make a little more noise this season with the bat.”

As a rookie with the Gulf Coast League Twins, Rohlfing batted .232 with seven RBI and seven walks.

But he suffered a torn meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, to his right knee, which limited him to just 22 games.

“It was kind of like a bunch of micro tears over time,” Rohlfing said. “I went to the doctor because I was having some problems and it ended up being that my ACL and meniscus was torn.”

Rohlfing will be one of the first to admit that playing professional baseball is light years away from his playing days at Oakville Senior High School.

“From day one, it was a huge step up,” Rohlfing said. “The whole game got faster right away.

“You go from being the top dog around here and you’re pretty much thrown down to the bottom of the barrel in the minor-league system. It almost feels like a never-ending battle.”

But for now, Rohlfing will continue to focus on preparing for spring training. He’s currently slated to hook up with the Elizabethton (Tenn.) Twins in the Appalachian League or even the Beloit (Wis.) Snappers of the Midwest League.

“Right now, I’m scheduled to go to short season ball in the Appalachian League in Tennessee,” Rohlfing said. “I would be playing with the Elizabethton Twins, which is part of the Twins organization.

“But if I have a really good spring training, I could end up in Beloit, Wis., which is our low A team.”