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The Bulldogs baseball team renewed its rivalry with St. Cloud Cathedral last week and lost their first game of the season. The visiting Crusaders, ranked #5 in Class A, improved to 5-0 for the season by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh inning and beating the Bulldogs 9-8. The Dogs, ranked #2 in Class A, dropped to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in conference.

Last year, the Dogs and Crusaders split their two conference games, but the Bulldogs got the last victory, defeating Cathedral 13-5 for fifth place at the state tournament.

Despite losing, Paynesville coach Brad Skoglund was pleased that his young team rallied as well as it did.

Cathedral took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first on a three-run homer by Dave Carlson, but the Dogs tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the first, getting a two-run homer from junior Adam Kampsen and an RBI double by junior Chad Stang. Cathedral scored another three runs to lead 6-3 after an inning and a half, but the Dogs scored four runs in their next three at bats to lead 7-6 after four innings.

In the second inning the Dogs scored an unearned run, in the third junior Adam Hemmesch singled home Stang, and in the fourth senior Russ Leyendecker singled and scored on a double by senior Josh Krupke, who in turn scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Crusaders scored a run to tie the game 7-7 in the fifth inning on a pair of doubles and then took the lead with two runs in the top of the seventh on an error and another pair of doubles. But the Dogs rallied with a run in the bottom of the seventh on a homer by sophomore Mike Mueller that cut the deficit to one and put the tying run on base courtesy of a single by Stang before running out of outs.

"We lost the game, but I feel better about our team the way we battled back against a good team," said Skoglund.

This week, the Bulldogs played at Melrose on Tuesday. They will host LPGE on Thursday, will play in a tournament at Big Lake on Saturday, and will play at Sauk Centre on Tuesday, April 29.

Cathedral--	330	010	2	- 9	13	2
Paynesville--	311	200	1	- 8	9	2

Cathedral - Batting: Adam Koopmeiner 3-3 2B-2 R-2 RBI; Justin Hollencamp 2-3 2B-2 R-2 RBI-2; Dave Carlson 2-4 HR RBI-4; Mike Schmidt 2-3 2B-2 RBI-2; Pitching: (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) Josh Hollenhorst (W) (7-9-8-6-2-6).

Dogs - Batting: Russ Leyendecker 3-4 R-2; Chad Stang 2-3 2B R RBI; Adam Kampsen 1-3 HR R RBI-3; Mike Mueller 1-3 HR R-2; Adam Hemmesch 1-2 R RBI; Josh Krupke 1-3 2B R RBI; Pitching: (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) Josh Kampsen (L) (6.1-13-9-7-2-5); Adam Kampsen (0.2-0-0-0-0-0).