After winning three of its last four baseball games the Bulldogs of Lake Mills (10-8) got bit by the long ball Wednesday night when they gave up four dingers in nine innings of play to North Iowa Conference rival Garner-Hayfield.

The two teams were to play a doubleheader with only the first game being counted as a conference game.

The Bulldogs dropped the first game 11-2 and were trailing 7-2 after an inning and a half of the second game, which was only going to be five innings before it was cancelled because of a tornado warning.

“We fell behind early, then had the bases loaded in the bottom of the first and only got one run,” said Bulldogs head coach Jason Blaser. “I think we could have stayed in the game had we been able to score more than one in the first, but after that first inning that kind of set the tone for us tonight.”

Wade Hebrink got the nod for the Bulldogs, but it was obvious from the start that this wouldn’t be his night on the mound.

The Cardinals jumped out in front with three runs in the top of the first on the strength of two singles, a double, and a two-run blast to left center by Nick Svare.

After Garner-Hayfield added three more in the top of the second the Bulldogs finally got on the board in the bottom half of the inning when Scott Abbey hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Royce Byrnes who drew a walk to leadoff the inning.

By the time the fifth inning had rolled around the Bulldogs had just five hits and had left seven runners stranded on base. Hebrink and Chris Throne led the LM attack with two hits each while Levi Dahle and Abbey added a double and single respectively.

After a solo shot in the fifth and a two-run homer in the sixth the Cardinals put the game out of reach and pushed the Bulldogs conference record to 3-3 while Garner-Hayfield improved to 4-1 in the NIC.

“Talent wise I don’t think they are that much better than us,” Blaser said. “They play some better teams in their non-conference schedule, but we should have been able to play with them.”

With a storm looming on the horizon the second game got under way, but not exactly in the way the Bulldogs would have liked. Garner-Hayfield drew four consecutive walks and led 1-0 when Jordan Wellick hit a grand slam for a 5-0 advantage.

Lake Mills did bounce back strong in the bottom of the first and for the first time all night was able to string three base hits together, including a two-run single by Brad Midlang that pulled the Bulldogs to within three at 5-2.

The Bulldogs wouldn’t see a chance at a comeback as the game was called because of a tornado warning with the Cardinals leading 7-2 heading to the bottom of the second.

Game One

Garner-Hayfield 11, Lake Mills 2

GH – 331 022 0 – 11 10 0

LM – 010 010 0 – 2 6 3

WP – Cass Albertson 7 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 8 K, 3 BB

LP – Wade Hebrink 3 1/3 IP, 7 R, 8 H, 2 K, BB

Game Two

Suspended after one and a half innings with G-H leading 7-2.